The University of Kansas
Dept. of Medicinal Chemistry
1251 Wescoe Hall Drive
4070 Malott Hall
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7582
Telephone: 785-864-4495
Fax: 785-864-5326
Email: medchem@ku.edu
Equipment and Labs
In order to maintain a world-class research environment, a medicinal chemistry department must have access to the equipment and instrumentation which provide an important part of graduate education and career preparation. While most research work is done in the departmental laboratories, various instrumentation laboratories have been established to provide research support.
Unlike many universities, graduate students at the University of Kansas have complete access to all the modern analytical instrumentation on campus, often on a hands-on basis. Very often, these laboratories are run by Ph.D.-level directors who provide instrument maintenance and user training, and serve as expert and enthusiastic collaborators. They include:
Multidisciplinary Research Building
The $40 million, 106,000 square foot building was completed in 2006 and is the latest addition to KU's growing research complex on west campus. More than 200 scientists, students and other research staff will work in the building when it is fully occupied.
Structural Biology Center
The center, originally dedicated Oct. 15, 2004, has been expanded in stages. Its original centerpiece was an 800-megahertz magnetic resonance spectrometer to be used in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry research.
A $22.2-million, 44,000-square-foot two-wing addition to the west side of the center was dedicated Oct. 23, 2008. One wing houses the Specialized Chemistry Center (SCC), the Center of Excellence in Chemical Methodologies and Library Development (CMLD), the High-Throughput Screening Laboratory (HTS) and the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) including the Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics (CCET) and the Center for Protein Structure and Function (PSF). The labs and students of Blake Peterson, a Kansas Bioscience Authority “Eminent Scholar†and Medicinal Chemistry professor are housed in the second wing.
Molecular Structures Group
The Molecular Structures Group manages shared instruments and computers used for determining molecular structure across the KU-Lawrence campus. Members of the staff include specialists in the four techniques currently represented in the group, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-ray crystallography, and molecular graphics and modeling; and technical personnel. They work collaboratively with faculty and students, acquire data for users, train users to operate the instruments themselves, help with planning experiments and interpreting the data, and frequently are co-authors on publications and investigators on grant proposals.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory
(Dr. Justin Douglas, director). Seven major instruments, at 800, 600, 500, 400 (3), and 300 MHz. The 800 and 600 are optimized for protein structure determination; the 500 has an ultrahigh sensitivity cryoprobe and is run under automation; the lower field instruments are managed for walk-up use.
Molecular Graphics Laboratory
The bulk of the molecular modeling and data management work in this proposal will rely on existing computational resources provided by the KU Molecular Graphics and Modeling Laboratory, including:
16 processor Athlon cluster available in the MGM Lab for large scale molecular docking simulations and other drug design / virtual screening applications
6 SGI workstations available in the MGM lab for small-scale simulations, visualization and analysis
4 inter-networked dual-processor Linux workstations (10 cpu's total, including master node / file server) in the DA lab for medium-scale simulations, visualization and analysis
4 processor Xeon chemical informatics database server (2.2. GHz; 441 GB disk storage; 4 GB memory) in the DA lab
The SYBYL suite of software, including the main analytical tools, plus subsidiary programs including VolSurf, FlexE, FlexX, FlexX-Pharm, CScore, UNITY, CombiLibMaker, DiverseSolutions, OptDesign, Selector, QSAR/CoMFA and Biopolymer
Numerous 3D virtual chemical libraries, including ChemNavigator (26,000,000+ compounds), PubChem small molecule collection (13,000,000+ compounds), ChemDiv, ChemBridge, Maybridge, NCI and others
Additional modeling software available in the lab, including AutoDock, Dock, AMBER, and CHARMm, Insight-II, Discover, MODELLER and Gaussian 03
Chemical informatics software, including JChem, Marvin, and CACTVS
Synthematix E-Notebook (obtained as part of the KU CMLD)
4 processor Oracle 10g license for chemical informatics server
Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
(Dr. Todd Williams, director). Low resolution EI or CI spectra, high resolution MS, and GC/MS analyses are available in positive or negative ion mode. An electrospray ionization device for our tandem hybrid mass spectrometer permits the direct observation of small molecule-macromolecule complexes.
Applied Bioinformatics Lab
The Applied Bioinformatics Lab (ABL) is a specialized service lab providing informatics supports for faculty, staff, post-docs, and graduate students in their research projects. Currently the ABL staff can assist researchers for the following tasks: consultation on experimental design involving data acquisition, management and analysis; data analysis and datamining of proteomics, small molecules, and genomics using statistical and machine learning approaches; developing relational databases and software applications; structure prediction, function annotation/prediction, sequence and domain analysis of proteins; phylogenetic analysis; etc. We also provide training in software programming and data analysis in the forms of workshops and one-to-one sections.
X-Ray Crystallography Laboratory
(Dr. Victor Day, director). On-site single crystal X-ray structure determinations performed with a complete set of data supplied to the researcher.
CMLD Combinational Chemistry Lab
The University of Kansas Center of Excellence in Chemical Methodologies & Library Development (KU CMLD Center) is dedicated to developing new methodologies for the synthesis of diverse and chemically novel libraries of drug-like molecules. The focus of the KU–CMLD center is the preparation of medium libraries (containing from 36-200 members) that are applicable to the discovery of new chemotherapeutic agents. Compounds generated through KU–CMLD research will be submitted to testing by a variety of collaborators, including the High-Throughput Screening Center at KU. The KU–CMLD Center involves researchers located at the University of Kansas (Departments of Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry), the University of Missouri–KC, and Iowa State University.
HTS: High Throughput Screening Lab
(Dr. Rathnam Chaguturu, Core Director) High throughput screening (HTS) is a powerful technology for drug discovery. The HTS Lab has assembled a chemical library of more than 100,000 small organic compounds with structural diversity and drug-like prosperities and equipped with state of the art instruments for liquid handling and signal detection. This lab provides local biomedical researchers easy access to the powerful technology.
Protein Structure Labratory
(Dr. Scott Lovell, Director) X-ray crystallography is the most powerful technique for studying high resolution three dimensional structures of macromolecules. The Protein Structure Laboratory is equipped to do all espects of crystallography. It is a service laboratory not only for crystallographers to collect their data, but also for non-crystallographers to work out their structures in a collaboration.
Protein Production Group
(Dr. Philip Gao, Director) The PPG offers service in cloning, mutagenesis, expression (currently E. coli; insect cells coming on-line soon), and purification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins on scales up to 100 mg or more of purified protein.
Biomolecular NMR Laboratory
(Dr. Asokan Anbanandam, Director) This lab assists investigators to apply high-field NMR to solve high-resolution solution structures of proteins, to understand their dynamics-mediated function, to determine protein conformational stability, and to study protein-ligand, protein-peptide, and protein-DNA interactions in solution. It offers consultation in experiment design, and training and service in both data collection and data analysis.
Other Facilities
Other on-campus facilities include an electron microscopy laboratory, an instrumentation design laboratory, a Tissue Culture Laboratory, a microanalytical laboratory to provide C/H/N analyses, a glassblowing shop, and a machine shop.
Copyright © 2009 by the University of Kansas
Comments: 0