Federal Project Grant Award Summary

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. received a $893,657 Project Grant award from the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director under the Research Infrastructure Programs (CFDA 93.351) effective June 1, 2026, through May 31, 2027. The award funds the acquisition and installation of a new NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Console Avance Neo 800 MHz spectrometer at the Institute's Boston, Massachusetts facility. This equipment upgrade replaces an outdated 19-year-old console on the existing 800 MHz spectrometer, which had become incompatible with current operating systems and software. The new console will enable the Arthanari Lab and other National Institutes of Health-funded research groups in the Boston area to deploy advanced NMR methodologies and enhance operational efficiency of existing techniques.

The upgraded spectrometer will support innovative biomolecular research capabilities, particularly for studying protein dynamics, allostery, conformational changes, and disease-causing mutations—information critical for mechanistic studies that complement static structural data from modern prediction programs. The system features a TXO probe optimized for 15N-direct detection sensitivity and will enable implementation of novel nitrogen detection methods with TROSY (Transverse Relaxation Optimized Spectroscopy) selection. This infrastructure advancement addresses a significant gap in high-field NMR instrumentation in the Boston region following the closure of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's magnet laboratory and will support research on challenging protein systems, including disordered proteins and those requiring eukaryotic expression systems where traditional NMR methods are limited.