RPI Spectrometer Aids Advanced Medical Research
Published Apr 15, 2007
Robert Palazzo, acting provost of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, shows off the Bruker BioSpin – a powerful nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer.
Attraction can be a powerful thing, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, it’s downright magnetic.
The nation’s oldest polytechnic university, Rensselaer is home to the most sensitive and powerful nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer in upstate New York. The new Bruker BioSpin is an 800-megahertz superconducting magnet that uses strong magnetic fields to provide researchers with detailed data on the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules. The information furthers the understanding of proteins that can cause disease and, thus, furthers the understanding of how disease might be treated.
“Our new NMR spectrometer is more sensitive, and it also gives higher resolution. That means that we can study larger proteins, and we need smaller amounts of those proteins to study,” explains Robert J. Linhardt, acting director of Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. That’s where the new spectrometer and a 600-MHz model are housed.
In March 2006, Rensselaer unveiled the $3 million BioSpin – which weighs 10 tons and stands almost two stories high – and anxious scientists at Rensselaer, other institutions and private industry wait in line to give the instrument a spin.
“The people who are using it heavily right now are interested in protein folding and misfolding,” Linhardt says.
When proteins assemble themselves, it’s called “folding,” and when they don’t fold correctly – or “misfold” – diseases such as Alzheimer’s, mad cow, Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and many types of cancer may result.
“We could basically use our understanding to provide pharmaceuticals,” he says. “We could use it to develop new theories about why proteins misfold, and we could link that back to genetic therapies. There are a lot of different ways to use this information.”
Linhardt says it’s the center’s goal to become a “regional powerhouse” for imaging technology and to perhaps join forces with General Electric Co., with substantial operations in nearby Schenectady.
“GE does a lot of imaging, and they’re very involved in the bio areas now and diagnostics,” Linhardt says.
Already, the center is eyeing the $6 million purchase of a 940-MHz NMR spectrometer – the latest and largest instrument of its kind.
Opened in 2004, Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is a 218,000-square-foot, $80 million facility. In addition to imaging, the center contains laboratories for the study of molecular biology, analytical biochemistry, microbiology, histology, tissue and cell culture, proteomics, and scientific computing and visualization. The center continues to recruit world-class faculty to New York’s Tech Valley.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Wes Aldridge
Current Weather Conditions In Albany, NY (12205)
Cloudy, and 29 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
