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Research Resources and Analytical Facility

College-Based Research Resources

Molecular Modeling Laboratory

The Molecular Modeling Laboratory is employed to find new pharmaceutical agents as well as to correct problems with existing drugs. Utilizing state of the art Silicon Graphics computers, researchers can view and alter molecular structures much less expensively than in the traditional laboratory environment. The traditional alteration of a molecule may involve numerous laboratory processes leading to the synthesis of many molecules. With the computer, scientists can change molecular structures with a reasonable idea of the corresponding pharmacological changes. For example, if an existing drug has a particular troublesome side effect, the molecular structure can be modified to maintain the original efficacy, while decreasing the side effect.

Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy Facility

The department recently added a state-of-the-art LCMS systems: the API-3000. Together with the existing Bruker Esquire LCMS system, it constitutes the shared LCMS facility of the department. The Bruker Esquire-LC Ion Trap LC/MS(n) system is located in room 310, Faculty building of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Mass range m/z can be measured from 50 up to 6000 with high resolution and high sensitivity. Multiple fragmentation (MS/MS) of analyte molecule can go up to MS6 for structural elucidation. Coupled with HP 1100 Chemstation and the robust, versatile software running on Windows NT, the LC-MS system is an extremely powerful and indispensable instrument for life science researches. The API 3000™ LC/MS/MS System is an enhanced high performance triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with applications in protein and peptide analysis, small molecule analysis in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies, and n-in-one cassette dosing analysis. It is located in 4P in the Crowe Building. 

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility

The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences has modern equipment for the performance of a wide range of experimental procedures. One of the newest and most expensive pieces of equipment is a Varian Unity Inova 500MHz NMR, located in room 107 Johnson Building. This instrument and another upgraded Bruker ARX-300MHz NMR forms the NMR lab in the Health Science Center. These state-of-the-art instruments are available to members of the department for qualitative and quantitative purposes, and it is presently used primarily to determine the structure of drug molecules, protein/DNA structure elucidation and combinatorial chemistry studies. The NMR is a very powerful tool in determining the structure of complex natural materials and synthetic organic substances. Routine multinuclear multidimensional NMR capabilities are available, as well as flow probe for High Throughput Screen (HTS) studies and Nanoprobe for semi-solid and tissue studies. For more information, contact Wei Li.

College of Pharmacy Core Facilities and OtherInstitutional Core Facilities and Resources

Analytical Facility

The Analytical Facility for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy houses 2 NMR spectrometers (500 and 400 MHz) and 4 mass spectrometers as well as a couple of HPLC, UV, IR, and polarimeter instruments. It is the largest available state-of-art analytical and bioanalytical facility for researchers at UT Health Science Center. The facility provides critical analytical/bioanalytical support to a broad spectrum of research in drug discovery, including medicinal chemistry, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), drug delivery, formulation, and other bioanalytical work.  

NMR
Instrument Name Location Year Acquired Probes Image
Varian Inova 500 Pharmacy Room B024 2001
  • 5mm TRPFG
  • 5mm S/W PFG
  • 5mm Penta PFG
  • 3mm IFC
  • 4mm Nano probe
Varian Inova 500
Bruker Avance III 400 Pharmacy Room B024 2011 5mm BBO Brunker Avance III

 

LCMS
Instrument Name Location Year Acquired Ion source(s)/Analyzer Image
Waters Xevo G2-S QTOF Pharmacy Room 502  2012 ESI/APCI Quadrupole TOF Waters Xevo
AB Sciex API-4500 with Shimadzu Nexera X2 UPLC Pharmacy Room 419 2013 ESI/APCI Triple-Quadrupole AB-Sciex 4500
SCIEX TQ5500 with Shimadzu Nexera XR HPLC Pharmacy Room 421 2014 ESI/APCI Triple-Quadrupole  sciex 5500
Bruker amaZon SL Mass Spec with Shimadzu HPLC Pharmacy Room 502  2016 ESI/Ion Trap bruker amazon ls ms
*Waters SYNAPT G2-Si HDMS with ACQUITY M-Class UPLC and Progenesis QIP software Pharmacy Room 415 2017 Nanoelectrospray/QTOF with ion mobility *Waters SYNAPT G2-Si HDMS with ACQUITY M-Class UPLC and Progenesis QIP software

 

AFM
Instrument Name Location Year Acquired Application Image
Bruker BioScope Resolve Pharmacy Room B025 2018 High resolution imaging Bruker BioScope Resolve

 

Others
Instrument Name Location Year Acquired Features & Application Image
Gilson preparative HPLC with waters Acquity UPLC Pharmacy Room 502  2001 UV and Fraction collector Gilson preparative HPLC
Perkin-Elmer FT IR Pharmacy Room 502  2011 Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy Perkin Elmer
Varian Cary 1E UV Pharmacy Room B024 1995 UV absorption Varian Cary
Rudolph Autopol V Polarimeter Pharmacy Room B024 2013 Optical rotation measurement Rudolph Aotopol

 

Last Published: Mar 14, 2025