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National Biomedical Resource
for Advanced Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy

Our research is supported by grant 1R24GM146107 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

About ACERT  

last update:   July 26, 2022

 

The National Biomedical Resource for Advanced Electron-Spin Resonance Technologies (ACERT) is an outgrowth of extensive experience in developing the methods of modern electron spin resonance (ESR, a.k.a. EPR-Electron Paramagnetic Resonance) by Prof. Jack H. Freed’s research group at Cornell University. The technologies upon which this Resource is based are in many respects unique in the world, and their development has proven necessary for our many successful studies on protein structure and conformational dynamics conducted with numerous collaborators.

Our services to the ESR user community include:

Technologies

ESR characterization of proteins is of great importance in the better understanding of many diseases, including AIDS, allergies and inflammations, ALS, Alzheimer's, bacterial infection, cancer, cardiac disease, depressive disorders and schizophrenia, Ebola viral infections, eye disorders, infertility, neurological disorders, Parkinson's, and SARS-1/SARS-2. We have developed several different technologies to support such studies:

1) Pulsed Fourier Transform and Two Dimensional ESR from 9 to 35 GHz

  • Distance Measurements in Proteins and Aggregates using Double Quantum Coherence ESR (DQC) and Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER);
  • Dynamic Structure of Membranes and Proteins by 2D-ELDOR;
  • Functional Dynamics of Proteins by Time Resolved FT and 2D-ESR;

2) ESR with Ultra-High Sensitivity for Very Small Biological Samples

3) High Frequency-High Field (HFHF) ESR

  • 95-240 GHz ESR;
  • Multifrequency Studies of Dynamics in Proteins and Membranes.
  • 95 GHz 2D-ELDOR of Protein Dynamics
  • Metallorganic Proteins in low temperature solids

4) Theory and Computational Methods for Modern ESR and Spectral Processing

  • Signal processing to recover strong signals from weak ones.
  • SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) to Determine Distance Distributions.
  • Improved Theoretical and Computational Methods for Analyzing Modern ESR Experiments.

5) Conventional ESR cw and pulse experiments at 9-35 GHz.

 

See our Dissemination page for further details, and the News page for recent events and articles.

RECENT EVENTS can be found on our ACERT News page.

The researchers that comprise ACERT are:

Prof. Jack H. Freed
Director & Principal Investigator

Prof. Brian Crane
Co-Director & and Co-Principal Investigator

Petr P. Borbat
Senior Research Associate
Associate Director

Curt R. Dunnam
Director of Operations
Engineering Physics

Alex L. Lai
Research Associate

Madhur Srivastava
Assistant Professor of Research

Art Samplaski
Administrative Manager

Walt Ford
Technician

Diane Patzer
Technician

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