Wednesday, May 30, 2012

QUEST – QUadrupolar Exact SofTware

QUEST is a new program for the exact simulation of solid-state NMR spectra of quadrupolar nuclei in stationary powdered samples which employs diagonalization of the combined Zeeman-quadrupolar Hamiltonian. The program may be used to simulate NMR spectra over the full regime of Larmor and quadrupolar frequencies, which encompasses scenarios ranging from high-field NMR to nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR, where the Larmor frequency is zero) and does not make use of approximations when treating the quadrupolar interaction. The program, which uses a graphical user interface, also incorporates chemical shift anisotropy and non-coincident chemical shift and quadrupolar tensor frames. QUEST can be used to simulate static NMR and NQR spectra with any relative size of the Zeeman and quadrupolar interactions and correctly predicts the appearance of “forbidden” or “overtone” NMR as well as NQR transitions. This program is available to download at http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/dbryce/ 

QUEST is described in an article which has been accepted for publication in Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (2012).

F.A. Perras, C.M. Widdifield, and D.L. Bryce, "QUEST – QUadrupolar Exact SofTware: a fast graphical program for the exact simulation of NMR and NQR spectra for quadrupolar nuclei," Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (2012) accepted. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssnmr.2012.05.002

Monday, May 21, 2012

Professorship positions in Magnetic Resonance, Warwick, U.K.

The University of Warwick is currently advertising two Professorship positions in Magnetic Resonance (one based in the Department of Chemistry, one based in the Department of Physics). Application Deadline: 29th June 2012 (applications must be made via the University of Warwick application procedure detailed in the adverts):

https://secure.admin.warwick.ac.uk/webjobs/jobs/academic/job20299.html

https://secure.admin.warwick.ac.uk/webjobs/jobs/academic/job26461.html

Recognition: Anthony Mittermaier

reposted from Agilent with permission

Agilent Technologies has announced the winner of the fourth annual Agilent Early Career Professor Award. Dr. Anthony Mittermaier, associate professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, will receive $50,000 per year for two years in his name, to support his research.

Mittermaier joined the faculty in the department of chemistry at McGill in 2005 and has used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in his research to develop an understanding of how the primary amino-acid sequence of a protein determines its dynamic properties. His work has also established links between structural mobility at the microscopic level and functional activity at the macroscopic level.

This year's award focused on the field of structural biology using NMR, an area of research highly valued by Agilent. To qualify for the award, a professor must make significant contributions to the subset of structural biology that uses NMR techniques to improve understanding of the molecular structure and function of nucleic acids or proteins. Mittermaier's research has successfully applied molecular biology, mutagenesis methods and NMR to probe the relationship between protein sequences, dynamics and function.


"We are delighted to learn that Agilent has selected our colleague Anthony Mittermaier for this prestigious award," said professor R. Bruce Lennox, chair of McGill's department of chemistry. "Professor Mittermaier is a pioneer in recognizing the power of an integrated dynamic and thermodynamic approach to understanding protein behavior. His combined NMR/calorimetry approach to sorting out the coupled protein folding/allostery problem is likely to find widespread application to many protein systems."

"This year, we were fortunate to have another group of impressive candidates," said Jack Wenstrand, director of University Relations at Agilent. "Our winner, Dr. Anthony Mittermaier, has demonstrated the highest level of excellence and skill in structural biology, and we are looking forward to following his innovative research endeavors."

The Agilent Early Career Professor Award is presented annually to recognize and encourage excellence in measurement research. It seeks to establish strong collaborative relationships between Agilent researchers and leading professors early in their careers, as well as to underscore Agilent's role as a sponsor of university research.

More details are available at http://www.agilent.com/univ_relation/profaward/index.shtml

Friday, May 18, 2012

6th Annual VIVA NMR Symposium

Hi All,

I am pleased to announce that the 6th Annual VIVA NMR symposium will take place Wednesday, June 27th at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby Mountain Campus) in Burnaby B.C. Yes, that is only 6 weeks away! This year we will also celebrate the opening of our new "Bruker Spectroscopy Facility" in the newly renovated SFU Chemistry Department.

The aim of this one day symposium is to bring together NMR users, researchers and managers from western Canada and the north-west of the USA to share information on topics of general NMR interest and to foster the development of an NMR community.

Talks or poster presentations by graduate students are especially encouraged.
Talks must be registered before June 15th, all other registrations will end on June 20th. On-line registration should be available soon at:

The symposium is designed to be affordable and thanks to generous sponsorship by Bruker Canada and Agilent Technologies, the registration fees are only $20 for students and $40 for non-students which includes the lunch BBQ and afternoon poster social session. 

The program will consist of 15-20 minute talks, a BBQ lunch at the Highland Pub, and a poster session/social gathering. A meeting of NMR facility managers is scheduled to follow immediately after the conference. For further details see the conference website: http://www.sfu.ca/~vivanmr

Due to the short time available we have not been able to reserve special accommodation this year but there are links on the website to accommodation at SFU.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested.

I hope to see you all soon!

Sincerely,

Andrew
--
Dr. Andrew Lewis
Director, Magnetic Resonance & Mass Spectrometry Facilities
Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive, Burnaby BC V5A 1S6
http://www.chemistry.sfu.ca/research/facilities/nmr

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

NMR paper in Nature Chemistry

V.N. Vukotic, K.J. Harris, K. Zhu, R.W. Schurko and S.J. Loeb, "Metal–organic frameworks with dynamic interlocked components," Nature Chemistry (2012) online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1354

Monday, May 14, 2012

"Canadian NMR Research" News Bulletin

Spring 2012 issue of the "Canadian NMR Research" news bulletin is now available for download. You are welcome to share it with your colleagues and students. Thanks for reading! http://nmr900.ca/nmr_bulletin.html

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Recognition: Anthony Mittermaier

Dr. Anthony Mittermaier, associate professor of chemistry at McGill University (Montreal), receives the 2012 Agilent Early Career Professor Award. The Agilent Early Career Professor Award is presented annually to recognize and encourage excellence in measurement research. Prof. Mittermaier has been awarded for his pioneering research in molecular biology, mutagenesis and NMR to study structure of proteins, their dynamics and function. 

To read the press release by Agilent:

http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2012/10may-ca12031.html

Monday, May 7, 2012

NMReady - 60 MHz bench-top NMR spectrometer

contributed by Jackie Metropolit (Nanalysis Corp., Calgary, Alberta)

Nanalysis Corp. a Calgary based company has recently launched a 60MHz bench-top NMR spectrometer called the NMReady™. The Alberta Company was established in 2009 with a mandate to design and manufacture compact Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) devices. The company initially sought to commercialize Force-detected NMR (FDNMR) as realized in BOOMERANG technology, but soon transitioned to miniaturize traditional NMR to bring FT NMR technology to the bench or glovebox.

The NMReady™ debuted in March, 2012 at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego. Conference attendees were pleasantly surprised to find 60MHz spectroscopic resolution, running both 19F and 1H, at a fraction of the size and cost of current NMR instrumentation. The small size of the instrument allows it to fit on the benchtop, in the fume hood or even inside a glovebox. It comes equipped with a built-in touch screen display that features an easy-to-use, OneTouch NMR, operator interface. The NMReady is a cryogen-free NMR system, uses standard 3mm and 5 mm NMR tubes and has a very modest service schedule.

The NMReady has application in all types of industries, including oil & gas, chemical, pharma, biotech, and food processing, and in government and university labs. It also works as an ideal training tool in an academic setting, allowing students to gain hands-on experience with NMR. The compact NMR spectrometer can improve workflow, reduce costs of outsourcing and allow large organizations to optimize all of their spectroscopic resources.

Nanalysis has just entered into a collaborative research agreement with Thesis Chemistry, a Green Chemistry organization in Cambridge, Ontario. The company will integrate the analytical capability of the NMReady bench-top NMR spectrometer into their program of transforming lignocellulosic biomass into green chemicals. See the press release at http://www.accesswire.com/viewarticle.aspx?id=397349

Nanalysis will be showcasing the NMReady at CSC 2012, May 26-30, 2012, in Calgary. Visit booth #222, to get a live demo and see first-hand the capabilities of the NMReady.

For more information on the applications and functions of the NMReady, visit http://www.nanalysis.com/