{"id":37848,"date":"2021-06-16T14:05:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T18:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=37848"},"modified":"2021-06-21T12:06:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T16:06:36","slug":"uga-part-of-40m-grant-for-nmr-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/uga-part-of-40m-grant-for-nmr-network\/","title":{"rendered":"UGA part of $40M grant for NMR network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers all over the world will have access to the University of Georgia\u2019s expertise in nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, thanks to a new infrastructure funded by a $40 million grant from the National Science Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Network for Advanced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, or NAN, will allow researchers to access ultra-high field nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers to study the structure, dynamics and interactions of biological systems and small molecules. The project is led by the University of Connecticut School of Medicine<\/a> in partnership with UGA and the University of Wisconsin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is much more than just a new expensive instrument\u2014it\u2019s an entirely different way of thinking about doing NMR,\u201d said Art Edison<\/a>, co-principal investigator and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. \u201cOnce we started to think in those terms, a lot of ideas emerged. For example, we want to create an easy way for scientists to discover what is available to them, even if they aren\u2019t NMR experts themselves. We also realized that everyone has the same problems dealing with data: saving it, processing it, analyzing it and depositing it into public databases. Centralizing this would be much more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edison teamed with colleagues at UConn and UW to develop the concept for NAN, which has three primary goals: to provide institutional researchers across the country easy access to the most powerful instruments, simplify the discovery and use of NMR resources, and foster good data stewardship. It will allow researchers across the U.S. to expand their own biomedical research study findings and collectively contribute any new scientific insights to the evolving NAN knowledge bases.<\/p>\n

Researchers will be able to visit or deliver their samples for analysis using state-of-the-art 1.1 GHz instruments located in Athens, Georgia, and Madison, Wisconsin. Both instruments, as well as the large number of existing instruments at all three locations, will be linked to a central hub based at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut, that will assist discovery and scheduling, host knowledge bases with information on optimal experiment design, and securely archive the collected data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new infrastructure, along with the network of scientists to support it, will advance research in biological sciences across the country through innovative experimentation and new biological insights,\u201d said NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences Joanne Tornow.<\/p>\n

The network will be led by UConn\u2019s Jeffrey C. Hoch, along with Edison and co-principal investigators Katherine Henzler-Wildman and Chad Rienstra from the University of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to NSF\u2019s funding, our new network will empower researchers to have open access to the latest advanced NMR technology with the necessary computational power to fuel future discoveries,\u201d said Hoch, professor of molecular biology and biophysics at UConn School of Medicine. \u201cAny researcher nationwide with a laptop will be able to make use of these powerful NMR instruments, methods and online data bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAN\u2019s central hub at UConn has a computational resource that brings NMR processing and software into one location, and they\u2019ll also be in charge of the primary database where people will deposit NMR data. UGA provides expertise in metabolomics and protein structural biology, especially with complex carbohydrate modifications\u2014areas that were pioneered by Jim Prestegard, emeritus professor and GRA Eminent Scholar at the university\u2019s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center. Edison is a member at the CCRC as well as the Institute of Bioinformatics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building two knowledge bases for NAN in these areas, and these will be designed to make it easier for non-experts to use our NMR resources to solve important problems,\u201d said Edison, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>. \u201cThis is not going to be easy, but will have great impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edison\u2019s field is metabolomics, and the overall goal is to measure metabolites in biological systems like human disease, plants and microbes. NAN will benefit collaborations across campus in areas like cell manufacturing, dog and cat health and nutrition, carbon cycling in the ocean, and basic biology of microbes. There is also potential for facilitating drug discovery by learning the shape and dynamics of proteins and carbohydrates, according to Edison. All of these areas are central to research in precision medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University of Georgia\u2019s partnership in this significant national project underscores our commitment to advancing discovery in a range of critically important fields,\u201d said S. Jack Hu, the university\u2019s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. \u201cWe thank Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Dr. Art Edison for his national leadership on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

UGA will also play an important role in connecting NAN with HBCUs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have several strong relationships with HBCUs that we will build on to use NAN to help underrepresented students have more advanced NMR resources available for their research,\u201d Edison said.<\/p>\n

This grant award is part of NSF\u2019s Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure II program, an\u00a0NSF-wide effort to meet the research community\u2019s needs for modern research infrastructure to support science and engineering research.\u00a0More information about the\u00a0Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure-2<\/a>\u00a0program\u00a0supporting the Network for Advanced NMR<\/a> project\u00a0can be found at\u00a0nsf.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers all over the world will have access to the University of Georgia\u2019s expertise in nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, thanks to a new infrastructure funded by a $40 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The Network for Advanced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, or NAN, will allow researchers to access ultra-high field nuclear magnetic resonance … <\/p>\n

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