University of Birmingham

Since 2004, the national biomolecular NMR facility at the Henry Wellcome Building for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HWB-NMR) offers academic and industrial users across the UK hands-on or collaborative access to a range of high-field solution-state NMR spectrometers (500-800 MHz, and 1 GHz arriving in 2020). The facility supports internationally competitive biomedical research in the areas of structural biology, metabolic profiling of human disease, and in drug discovery.  With on-going support from the Wellcome Trust academic users are offered to access NMR time free-of-charge on the Wellcome-funded 800 MHz and UK-RI-funded 1 GHz spectrometers, respectively. The facility also offers training (including multi-day ‘NMR Bootcamps’), available to the wider NMR community, as well as other national user events of interest, including annual user meetings held at HWB-NMR.

Contacts:
Dr. Sara Whittaker

NMR Equipment

Ultra-High Field (>800 MHz)

Bruker Avance NEO 1.0 GHz four channel narrow bore NMR spectrometer equipped with SampleJet automated sample changer, including variable temperature cooling/heating and capacity for 480 ‘short’ sample tubes, including 5 mm (600 μl), 3 mm (180 μl), 1.7 mm (30 μl), 1 mm (8 μl) diameter NMR tubes. This instrument will be delivered in 2020.   

Solution state probes:

  • 5 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (1H, 13C/15N, 2H TXI) probe, z-gradient
  • 5 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (TCI) He-cooled cryoprobe with enhanced 13C, 15N, 1H, 2H sensitivity, z-gradient

Very-High Field (700-800 MHz)

Bruker Avance NEO 800 MHz four channel narrow bore NMR spectrometer equipped with SampleJet automated sample changer, including variable temperature cooling/heating and capacity for 480 ‘short’ sample tubes, including 5 mm (600 μl), 3 mm (180 μl), 1.7 mm (30 μl), 1 mm (8 μl) diameter NMR tubes.

Solution state probes:

  • 5 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (1H, 13C/15N, 2H TXI) probe, z-gradient
  • 5 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (TCI) He-cooled cryoprobe with enhanced 13C, 15N, 1H/19F, 2H sensitivity, z-gradient
  • 1.7 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (TCI) He-cooled cryoprobe with enhanced 13C, 1H and 2H sensitivity, z-gradient

Additional capabilities

Bruker Avance IVDr 600 MHz two channel NMR spectrometer standardised for high-throughput pre-clinical screening and in vitro diagnostics research, equipped with SampleJet automated sample changer, including sample cooling to 6°C and capacity for 480 ‘short’ sample tubes, including 5 mm (600 μl), 3 mm (180 μl), 1.7 mm (30 μl), 1 mm (8 μl) diameter NMR tubes. Full measurement service provided by the Phenome Centre Birmingham, offering the current ‘gold’ standard in metabolomics NMR of clinical samples, with standardised platform and excellent stability and reproducibility.

Bruker Avance III 600 MHz narrow borethree channel NMR spectrometer equipped with 5 mm 13C/15N-optimised triple resonance (TXO) He-cooled cryoprobe with enhanced 13C, 15N, 1H, 2H sensitivity. Ideal for ‘proton-less’ NMR experiments of intrinsically disordered proteins, for example.

** NMR measurement time using this Wellcome-funded probe offered free-of-charge to all UK-based academics **

Bruker 500 MHz three channel NMR spectrometer equipped with 4 mm gHR-MAS H/C/D probe for 1H and 13C nuclei, and 10-slot (uncooled) sample changer.

Ideal for analysing intact biological tissue samples, for example, using high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS).