September 01, 2016

On the 5th of September SNUG members delivered at University of Stirling Scotland’s first NMR for Industry Workshop. The event presented to the industrial researchers an introduction to solution state and solid state NMR covering the nuts and bolts behind these techniques. This was followed by a series of presentations illustrating industrial applications of high field and benchtop NMR. Poster and networking sessions cemented new links between SNUG laboratories and industry.

The event, which attracted more than 30 active participants, was sponsored by ScotCHEM, Nanalysis, Bruker, JEOL, Magritek, Oxford Instruments and GPE, who demonstrated their products.

April 30, 2016

University of Glasgow NMR spectroscopist Brian Smith's work has been promoted in a featured article in the May 2016 issue of Structure and highlighted in a blog written by the Editor of Structure and Cell Chemical Biology, Cell Press. The work describes how the cytoplasmic stress response protein Kbp binds potassium ions with high specificity, but an affinity in vitro almost weak enough to make it a plausible intracellular potassium sensor. Collaborators in Dan Walker's lab showed that ygaU deletion strains of E.Coli that don't express Kbp struggle to grow on media that contain potassium ions suggesting a previously unknown pathway that could be targeted to generate new antibiotics.

April 30, 2016

As of March 2016, the University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry will receive a desktop NMR spectrometer (60 MHz NMReady 60e by Nanalysis). This instrument does not require cryogens neither electricity for its persistent magnet. You can simply plug it in and measure proton NMR spectra. It takes standard 5 mm NMR tubes, just like its bigger brothers. In the following months we will bring it to high-schools, undergraduate teaching labs and industrial labs across Scotland. What better way to learn about NMR than via hands-on experience with a cool piece of kit!