Graduate programs in Chemistry and Biochemistry Major Equipment Facilities and Supporting Resources
We've got what it takes!
All research and most teaching activities within the chemistry and molecular biology department are located in three connected buildings, Ladd Hall, Dunbar Laboratory, and the Industiral and Agricultural Communication Center.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Laboratory
The chemistry department has recently been awarded a NSF grant to upgrade the NMR instrumentation at NDSU. The $700,000 upgrade provided state of the art facilities which are unrivaled in our region. The instruments were installed in the Spring of 1999 and have not rested since. The NMR Spectroscopy Center constists of a 500 MHz Varian Inova with triple axis gradients, a 400 Varian Inova with Z-axis gradients, and a 300 MHz Varian Mercury with Z-axis gradients. All instruments have variable temperature capabilities and employ the latest processing software.
Materials Characterization Laboratory
The Department houses outstanding facilities for modern materials characterization. X-ray facilities include Single Crystal, Powder Diffraction, X-Ray Fluorescence, and Thin Film Diffraction capabilities. Also on hand are elemental C, H, and N analysis and standard polymer characterization (eg. TGA) equipment. A high-resolution mass spectrometer Bruker Daltonics BioTOF system with high performance ESI, APCI and nESI sample introduction and ionization sources, and a Bruker HPLC ESI mass spectrometer round out the materials characterization facility.
Center for Protease Research Core Biology Facility
In 2003, the Core Biology Facility (CBF) was established as an integral part of the Center for Protease Research and is supported by COBRE and INBRE grants from the NCRR division of the NIH. The facility, located in IACC 308 and 354, carries supplies and equipment useful for prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell culture, molecular biology techniques and in vitro enzyme assays. The CBF provides training and consultation in experimental design for students and researchers in individual sessions and group workshops. Access is also provided to major equipment, including an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer, Applied Biosystems 7500 Real-time PCR machine, Axon 4000B Microarray Scanner, BioTek Precision 2000 Robotic Pipetting System, Molecular Devices Gemini EM Microplate Fluorimeter, and Thermo Electron Multiskan Microplate Spectrophotometer.
Molecular Modeling and Bioinformatics Studio
The Molecular Modelling and Bioinformatics Studio is designed to provide undegraduate and graduate students the ability to have hands on experience with modern computational tools. When not being used for teaching the facility is available for research consultations for faculty, Post-Docs, and students wishing to incorporate molecular modelling (compuational chemistry) into their current research endeavors.
Current software includes Molecular Operating Environment (affectionately referred to as MOE) from Chemical Computing Group, Inc. and Spartan'04 from Wavefunction, Inc. The studio houses 17 PC workstations and several SGI Inc. workstations.
H. J. Klosterman Chemistry Library
The university maintains a branch chemistry library in the Department which is accessible 24 hours a day to faculty, staff, post-docs, and graduate students. The book collection contains nearly 7300 volumes which are shelved on the first 3 ranges and the east wall of the first study carrel. The Chemistry Library currently subscribes to 189 serials and periodicals.