A $435,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) major research instrumentation program will be used by Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley in Menasha, Wis., to fund the purchase of a nuclear MR (NMR) spectrometer.<br /><br />Scientists at the two Wisconsin universities expect the NMR spectrometer will be used "round the clock" by students and faculty in the physical and biological sciences. The device will be housed in the Lawrence chemistry department, and used by chemists and biochemists to determine the molecular structures of a variety of compounds, ranging from proteins to drugs.<br /><br />"My research students and I will use it to identify and characterize the many new compounds we make in the lab as part of our ongoing efforts to develop new treatments for cancer, inflammation and septic shock," said Stefan Debbert, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry at Lawrence. "Several of my colleagues in the chemistry and biology departments . . . will take full advantage of it in their own research programs, in projects studying viral peptides, bacterial metabolites and novel inorganic and organometallic materials."<br /><br />In awarding the grant, NSF investigators said the proposal from the two schools was "an extraordinary example of a public two-year college and private four-year university in a mutually beneficial partnership."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />