$5M instrument will aid research
A group of MSU administrators, state authorities and scientists had a first look at a new facility built on campus to house a cutting-edge nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, spectrometer on Thursday. A dedication ceremony was held at MSU's Core Technology Alliance Biomolecular NMR Facility, a part of the Engineering Research Complex, to introduce the new instrument, which uses powerful magnets to help scientists determine the structures of large molecules and monitor the interactions of drugs and proteins - important applications for biological and medical research. The 900-megahertz spectrometer, which arrived on campus in May, is part of the Michigan Center for Structural Biology, a group of shared instruments housed at facilities in the state and other parts of the Midwest, including MSU. The spectrometer provides state-of-the-art speed and sensitivity, said Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, chairperson of MSU's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It is one of only five such machines in the nation. MSU's instrument is intended to be used by scientists at a number of institutions around the state, country and world, said J.