Chemist Receives $2 Million NIH Instrumentation Grant

Christopher Jaroniec, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, led a team of researchers at Ohio State and Case Western Reserve University to receive a $2 Million High-End Instrumentation grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The award will be used to purchase a high-field wide-bore solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer that will provide major new capabilities to multiple investigators involved in basic biomedical research. The spectrometer, which is also being supported by the College of Arts and Sciences with significant matching funds, will be housed in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry NMR facility.

The new solid-state NMR instrument, the first of its kind in the state of Ohio and one of few nationwide, will enable the analysis of three-dimensional structures and dynamics of large peptide and protein assemblies that cannot be investigated by using conventional tools such as X-ray crystallography and solution NMR spectroscopy.

“Many of these systems play major roles in diverse biological processes, such as the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative protein misfolding diseases and regulation of gene expression and DNA repair, and are of fundamental importance to human health,” Jaroniec said.

In addition to Jaroniec, the collaborative team of investigators who will be the major users of the new instrument includes five other Ohio State faculty members: Mark Foster, Joshua Goldberger, Philip Grandinetti, Thomas Magliery and Michael Poirier, as well as Witold Surewicz, a professor at Case Western Reserve University.

The NIH High-End Instrumentation program (http://dpcpsi.nih.gov/orip/diic/high_end_instrumentation.aspx) supports purchases of major shared research equipment that costs between $750,000 and $2.0 million, such as high-field NMR spectrometers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, electron microscopes, high-resolution mass spectrometers, and supercomputers.

Since its inception in 2002, the High End Instrumentation program has provided 163 awards totaling $248,798,256 to teams of NIH-supported investigators in 27 states.