Study of nature's machinery takes center stage at UH

International experts to visit campus to dedicate research facility, give talks

About 15 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter, an 800 megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer was delivered to UH in January. On May 16 and 17, top experts in the field of biomolecular NMR will gather at UH to dedicate the machine and participate in a special symposium devoted to protein science.

"This NMR is a rare sort of instrument, and for this part of the country, extremely rare," said B. Montgomery Pettitt, Cullen Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UH and director of UH's Institute for Molecular Design (IMD), where the instrument is housed.

Funded by a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, as well as university funds, the NMR device allows scientists to produce three-dimensional images of proteins, gene sequences and other molecules in solution. By studying these structural images, scientists can design new drugs and vaccines and gain a better understanding of processes taking place within the body's cells.

At UH, the scientists using the device include Xiaolian Gao, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry who has directed NMR research at UH during the past decade; and Glen Legge, an assistant professor of biology and biochemistry who formerly worked at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.

"We are extremely excited about the arrival of this high-power instrument, which will allow our research to meet cutting-edge challenges," said Gao, who will oversee the operation of the NMR facility.

NMR technology allows scientists to determine the structure of the molecules of life, or any other very complicated molecules. "With those structures we can create models and try to understand how these wonderful molecular machines actually work. This is real nanotechnology that's been evolving for billions of years, and it actually works," Pettitt said. "We would like to understand how nature does this so that we might then be able to create new and unexpected technologies, as well as cure diseases."

Researchers, student and faculty from institutions throughout the Gulf Coast region, as well as from industry, will use the UH-based NMR device, Pettitt said.

UH President Arthur K. Smith and Vice President for Research Arthur C. Vailas, along with UH scientists and international NMR scholars, are expected to attend the facility's opening and ribbon-cutting on Friday, May 16.

On Saturday, May 17, the First Houston High Field NMR Symposium will be held on the UH campus. Ad Bax, chief of the section on biophysical NMR spectroscopy at the National Institutes of Health and one of the foremost experts in biomolecular NMR, will speak at 8:45 a.m. on new opportunities in NMR studies. The May 17 symposium is free and open to the public. It will be held in Room 232 of Philip G. Hoffman Hall at UH. Registration and symposium information, including speakers and their topics, is available on the Web at http://www.chem.uh.edu/imd/nmrcon/

The event is sponsored by the IMD and the W. M. Keck Center for Computational and Structural Biology via the Gulf Coast Consortia.

The NMR machine at UH is so large that it must be housed in a specially-built two-story room in a former TV studio on campus. At the heart of the instrument is a magnet so powerful that it can erase credit cards, ruin watches and affect people with pacemakers who come too close. A specially-marked carpet and warnings within the facility clearly indicate safety zones.

The NMR joins other state-of-the-art research equipment in the IMD.

"The Institute for Molecular Design at UH is one of the oldest in the country devoted to the study of how we design molecules," Pettitt said. "To do that we need to understand their structure, their properties and the latest in theoretical design techniques. We then try to put that to work by designing test molecules for our friends in medical fields and in industry."

The 800 MHz NMR also provides educational opportunities for the next generation of scientists through the Keck Center for Computational and Structural Biology. The Keck Center comprises a regional group of scholars from institutions including UH, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, and several health institutions in the University of Texas System. One of the center's missions is to train scientists who are at the interface of biology and computational sciences.

"In the past, our students in biology have received less mathematical training than students in other sciences, such as physics, chemistry and geology," Pettitt said. "In the past 20 years, though, biology has become more computable, and those students now need to know the same quantitative methods as other science students. It's a wonderful revolution, but it took our educational system somewhat by surprise, as did the demand by industry for students with this kind of training. So we established this center in order to educate students at this interface."

SOURCES: Pettitt, 713-743-3263, [email protected]; Gao, 713-743-2805, [email protected]

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