Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an essential tool in organic chemical and biochemical research and allows for the analysis of the purity of natural and synthetic compounds (analytical HPLC) as well as the separation of mixtures of compounds into the pure constituents of the mixture (semi-preparative HPLC) for further use in a variety of experiments. The research group of the principle applicant and those of the co-applicants have, for some time, been sharing an HPLC system that has served the collective needs of the researchers for analytical as well as semi-preparative separations of organic materials. The current HPLC system has been carefully maintained and has functioned well for 17 years. It has, however, reached the end of its useful lifetime. The computer software that operates the instrument requires an operating system that is not compatible with modern computers and both the software and the instrument are no longer supported by the manufacturer. The current instrument is no longer reliable and repairs are problematic since parts are no longer available from the manufacturer. The research groups that rely on such an instrument span research activities from synthetic organic chemistry to medicinal chemistry, biotechnology, enzymology, chemical biology and microbiology. The requested HPLC system will be available for use by the 41 researchers (including undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and technicians) in the laboratories of the four applicants. A technician (M. Sc.) in the laboratory of the principle applicant with over 25 years of experience in the use and maintenance of HPLC systems will oversee the operation of the instrument and will provide detailed training for any new researchers from the co-applicant research groups.