2009-2010 Annual Report

the 2009/10 Annual Report of the 900 NMR Facility has been finalized and is now available for download. We will start mailing printed copies shortly.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our users and clients, as well as our partners and funding agencies for continuing support.

International Conference on Structural Genomics 2011

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the International Conference on Structural Genomics 2011, which will be held in Toronto, Canada on May 10-14, 2011. This meeting is the 6th in this series of biennial meetings of the International Structural Genomics Organization. The meeting is designed to serve as a forum to discuss the most recent developments in structural genomics, structural/chemical biology, and their impact on research in biology, medicine and disease. A substantial number of short talks will be selected from submitted poster abstracts. Also, a limited number of student travel fellowships will be available for travel to this meeting. Please see the website for further details

http://www.icsg2011.org/

We hope to see you there!

Best regards,

Cheryl Arrowsmith - ICSG 2011 Organizer

Ted Baker, Stephen Burley, Dino Moras, Joel Sussman, Shigeyuki Yokoyama, Tom Terwilliger - ISGO Executive Committee

Canada Research Chairs in magnetic resonance

Government of Canada has announced (external link) an investment of $275.6 million to fund 310 new or renewed Canada Research Chairs at 53 Canadian universities. This includes renewal of four Chairs involved in magnetic resonance research.

Cheryl Arrowsmith (University of Toronto) Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Structural Proteomics

Mitsuhiko Ikura (University of Toronto) Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Cancer Structural Biology

Pascale Legault (Université de Montréal) Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Structural Biology and Engineering of RNA

Josef Zwanziger (Dalhousie University) Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Materials

John A. Weil (1929-2010)

Colleagues,

It is with sadness that we inform you that John A. Weil, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Saskatchewan, died last Wednesday, November 17, 2010 in Saskatoon at the age of 81. John Weil was a well-known EPR personality, not only in Canada but also world-wide, who made many significant contributions to the theory and practice of magnetic resonance. He was a wonderful mentor and friend. He will be greatly missed.

John's family is planning a memorial reception to honor his life. You are welcome to attend the reception which will be held on Wednesday December 29, 2010, 3-6 pm, at the Edwards Family Centre (333 4th Avenue North) in Saskatoon. For more information and to read the obituary published in Saskatoon StarPhoenix:
http://www.legacy.com/CAN-SASKATOON/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=146687310

The remembrance book is open online so you can leave your tributes and condolences for the family
http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/can-saskatoon/guestbook.aspx?n=john-weil&pid=146687310

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that the charitable donations to be made to support the research of young scientists at the University of Saskatchewan, Department of Chemistry, contact person: Ronda Duke (306) 966-4655, with a notation that it is in memory of Dr. John A. Weil.

Dr. Keith Brown
Department of Chemistry
Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Center
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
306-966-1725
http://chem4823.usask.ca/kbrown.html

Recognition: André Simpson

André Simpson, Professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto Scarborough, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (full story at UTSC).

Web: http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~asimpson/

Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry: a computational issue

A special issue of Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry on Quantum-Chemical Computations of Magnetic Resonance Parameters (2010, volume 48, issue S1) has been finalized and is now available online.

Canadian contributions

E.S. Kadantsev and T. Ziegler, "First-principles calculation of parameters of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy in solids", Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 48 (2010) S2-S10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mrc.2655

D.L. Bryce "A computational investigation of J couplings involving 27Al, 17O, and 31P," Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 48 (2010) S69-S75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mrc.2630

D.H. Brouwer, I.L. Moudrakovski, R.J. Darton, R.E. Morris, "Comparing quantum chemical calculation methods for structural investigation of zeolite crystal structures by solid-state NMR spectroscopy", Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 48 (2010) S113-S121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mrc.2642

NMR Thesis Defended: Vladimir Michaelis

Congratulations go to a long-time 900 Facility user Vladimir Michaelis who has just defended his Ph.D. Thesis! Well done, Vlad!

Vladimir Michaelis (Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba) November 10, 2010
Supervisor: Prof. Scott Kroeker
Ph.D. thesis "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Disorder and Local Structure in Borate and Germanate Materials"

Vlad and Scott just published an important paper on 73Ge solid-state NMR in the Journal of Physical Chemistry which was part of his thesis project

Vladimir K. Michaelis and Scott Kroeker, "73Ge Solid-State NMR of Germanium Oxide Materials: Experimental and Theoretical Studies," Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2010) ASAP. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp1071082

Russell Bell Symposium, McMaster

McMaster University, November 18, 2010

Russell Bell, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster, has made significant scientific contributions in the area of NMR, chemical biology using DNA and proteins, organic synthesis and in environmental remediation. In addition, he is renowned at McMaster University for excellence in teaching, particularly of first year chemistry. The department is pleased to recognize his contributions with this special symposium.

Hamilton Hall, HH-305

9:30-­9:35 Mike Brook, McMaster University: Opening Remarks

9:35-10:20 Fred Capretta, McMaster University: Six Degrees of Russell Bell

10:20­-10:35 Coffee

10:35-11:20 John Valliant, McMaster University: Title TBA

ABB­-163

1:30-2:20 Scott Bohle, McGill University: Chemistry of an All Black Pigment: The Quinoline Antimalarial Drug Target

2:30-2:35 Brian McCarry, Chair of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University: Concluding Remarks

2:35 Russell Bell, McMaster University: Some Thoughts

Contact Bob Berno for more information: bberno "at" mcmaster.ca

Dr. Bob Berno
Manager: McMaster NMR Facility
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L9
Phone: (905) 525-9140 x24158 or x24686
Fax: (905) 522-2509
http://www.chemistry.mcmaster.ca/facilities/nuclear-magnetic-resonance-laboratory

"Canadian NMR Research" News Bulletin

The Fall 2010 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!

H.L. Holmes Award 2011: call for nominations

Applications are being accepted for post-doctoral studies in chemistry, physics, biology or mathematics as they relate to medical and biological processes. Awards cover a one or two-year period, depending on available funding and the research proposal. An Award can have a monetary value of up to $100,000 CDN per year.

Please consult the following link for more information:

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/about/holmes-awards.html

Application Deadline: February 28, 2011

The Russell Varian Prize 2011: call for nominations

The Russell Varian prize honors the memory of the pioneer behind the first commercial Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometers and co-founder of Varian Associates. The prize is awarded to a researcher based on a single innovative contribution (a single paper, patent, lecture, or piece of hardware) that has proven of high and broad impact on state-of-the-art NMR technology. The prize aims to award the initial contribution that laid the ground for the specific technology of great importance in state-of-the-art NMR. It is sponsored by Varian Inc. and carries a monetary award of 15,000 Euro. The award ceremony will take place at the EUROMAR 2011 meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, August 21-25, 2011, with the prize winner delivering the Russell Varian lecture.

Rules for the Russell Varian Prize
- Only single pieces of work are considered (a paper, a lecture, a patent, etc).
- In case of multiple authorship, the prize is awarded to the author with the largest creative and innovative share of the contribution. Only in exceptional cases of truly equal shares can the prize be split between two authors of the same contribution.
- No individual can receive the prize more than once.
- Prize winners become members of the Advisory Board for the Russell Varian Prize that evaluates future nominations and makes recommendations to the Prize Committee.

Call for Nominations
Nominations must be forwarded by email to the Secretary of the Prize Committee, Vladimir Sklenar. The deadline for nominations is February 21, 2011. Nominations should be laid out in the format of a publishable laudatio proposal that in case of multiple authorship must include an outline of why the nominee is the most innovative author behind the paper. Attention is further drawn to the fact that the Russell Varian prize awards the earliest seed paper of an important technology rather than later more comprehensive and highly quoted papers.

Prize Committee 2011: Christian Griesinger, Jean Jeener (Chairman), Eriks Kupce, Thomas Prisner (EUROMAR 2011 representative), Vladimir Sklenar (Secretary), and Ole W. Sørensen

Advisory Board for the Russell Varian Prize: Erwin Hahn, Nicolaas Bloembergen, John S. Waugh, Alfred G. Redfield, Alexander Pines, Albert W. Overhauser, Martin Karplus

Previous Russell Varian Prize Laureates, Jean Jeener (2002), Erwin Hahn (2004), Nicolaas Bloembergen (2005), John S. Waugh (2006), Alfred G. Redfield (2007), Alexander Pines (2008), Albert W. Overhauser (2009), Martin Karplus (2010).

2010 MRS Fall Meeting

November 29 - December 3, 2010, Boston, MA
Abstracts for technical symposia are available online
http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec.asp?CID=27791&DID=332879

Cover article in Angewandte Chemie

Low concentration and poor sensitivity often hinder or make impossible solid-state 17O NMR in large biomolecular systems. In this cover article in Angewandte Chemie Gang Wu (Queen’s) and co-workers from the University of Ottawa and NRC Canada show that at an ultrahigh magnetic field of 21 T the high quality solid-state 17O NMR spectra can be obtained for large protein–ligand complexes of up to 300 kDa in size. Complementary multinuclear 17O, 27Al, and 13C NMR data obtained in this work have aided in the structural refinement for an ovotransferrin bound Al-oxalate complex.

Jianfeng Zhu, Eric Ye, Victor Terskikh, and Gang Wu, "Solid-State 17O NMR Spectroscopy of Large Protein-Ligand Complexes," Angewandte Chemie International Edition 49 (2010) 8399-8402. (Cover Article) http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201002041

This is an ninth cover article featuring results obtained using resources of the National Ultrahigh-Field NMR Facility for Solids. See our cover gallery and the complete list of research publications enabled by the Facility here (complete list).