Magritek, a leading provider of compact NMR and MRI instruments, reports how Assistant Professor Irosha Nawarathne in the Department of Chemistry at Lyon College, Arkansas, has incorporated the Spinsolve benchtop NMR into the undergraduate teaching curriculum and to aid their biomedical research program. 

Lyon College is a selective liberal arts institution in rural Arkansas. Students taking the chemistry major courses are guided to understand the principles underlying the composition, structure, and properties of substances—both natural and man-made—and the transformations they undergo. The program emphasizes helping students become knowledgeable observers and independent, imaginative problem-solvers, using state-of-the-art equipment in the laboratory setting. Dr Irosha Nawarathne is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department. Her work bridges biomedical research to teaching students the practical use of instrumentation to prepare them for employment and the challenges of the chemical industry. NMR was added to the core instrumentation available in the chemistry department in 2015. Dr Nawarathne takes up the story of how her department came to purchase a Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometer. 

“The Spinsolve Education Benchtop NMR Spectrometer at Lyon College was purchased using a Competitive Instrumentation Award from Arkansas IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), supported by an exploratory grant from National Institute of Health (NIH). Spinsolve has become the most popular among faculty and students of our chemistry program. It is used in organic chemistry, instrumental analysis, and advanced inorganic chemistry laboratories. We plan to extend the usage to other areas too. Students have become very interested in the concept of NMR because of this instrument. Their knowledge of NMR is improved tremendously after the incorporation of Spinsolve in the chemistry program. It is easy to operate, provides quick analysis, and requires very low maintenance. Spinsolve is definitely the best fit for a small college like ours. We formerly had a cryogenic NMR spectrometer at Lyon but the chemistry program has not been able to maintain the instrument in the long term. Spinsolve is low cost and its low maintenance is key for its great fit to Lyon chemistry program. It is also used in recruiting keen students as they get really excited about the instrument and its capabilities during frequent campus tours.” 

“We also take the advantage of Spinsolve in our biomedical research program of discovery of novel antibiotics for drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The research students use it to get feed-back on their synthesized molecules before moving on to the next step. We have also utilized the COSY protocol for understanding the framework of the synthesized molecules. The utility is limited as we mainly work with the large natural products that require more than a proton (¹H) NMR to understand the modifications. As a result, we are in the process of upgrading the system with a ¹⁹F protocol. This will be very beneficial to our research as we focus on developing various fluorinated natural products.” 

“Our program owns various analytical instruments such as FT-IR, GC, GC-MS, and UV/Fluorescence spectrometer. Prior to 2015, we used FT-IR and GC-MS as the primary instruments in organic chemistry and instrumental analysis classes. Although, it is possible to analyze the synthetic and other available organic molecules using those two instruments, NMR is the state-of-art instrument for organic molecule analysis. NMR provides detailed structure of the molecule within a very short time compared to the other instruments. The students feel very confident and satisfied with their laboratory accomplishments using the Spinsolve. We incorporate all the available instruments in instrumental analysis and advanced inorganic chemistry classes for students' benefit. Since spring 2017, several applications of Spinsolve were utilized to analyze paramagnetic and organometallic compounds. Such is the delight to have the Spinsolve at Lyon, we are in the process of seeking funds for the purchase of the ¹³C console of Spinsolve.” 

Magritek's Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometers are supplied worldwide to academics in teaching and research; also to industry for research and reaction monitoring through to quality control use.

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