College Creates Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center; Names Subramanian Director
The University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy has created a new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Center, recruiting Vivekanandan Subramanian, PhD to serve as the Center’s inaugural director. NMR instruments are large magnets, similar to clinical MRI scanners, that allow researchers to measure the structure of small molecules and peptides.
The UK PharmNMR Center will serve as a catalyst for improving access to large scale scientific instruments for the University and the Commonwealth. Under the direction of Subramanian, the Center will work with researchers throughout the community to offer supervised access to analyze small molecules and small peptides to further advance scientific research.
Subramanian comes to UK from the University of Michigan, where he oversaw the NMR program and helped establish collaborations across campus. In addition, he has experience working as a researcher at the Food and Drug Administration on NMR methodology development and has over 65 research publications to his name. At UK, Subramanian will serve as the premier NMR specialist and director.
“This is a great addition to the College,” said UK College of Pharmacy chief research officer Linda Dwoskin. “The PharmNMR Center adds incredible value to our research enterprise, while helping us further collaborations across campus. I’m excited to have Vivek join our team, and he’s already had a positive impact since joining the College last year.”
Subramanian brings with him over 30 years of experience working with Bruker and Varian NMR spectrometers and will manage and assist in the College’s NMR collaborative research.
“The opportunity to lead innovation at the UK College of Pharmacy and across UK’s campus is an honor,” said Subramanian, who started at the College last June. “It’s exciting to already see the collaborations we’re enabling while having a direct impact on student research.”
Subramanian has also developed a new biomolecular NMR and structural biology course, which launched spring 2019. This course is open to all UK students, and a much-needed addition to those interested in small molecule and protein characterization.
Building and developing the PharmNMR Center alongside UK’s faculty and staff will be Subramanian’s primary focus while also actively looking for opportunities to collaborate outside of the College. He believes the Center will help enhance the competitiveness of UK faculty in the type of data they’re able to collect, while building upon the College’s strong tradition of bold innovation. “The NMR Center will be a terrific addition to our campus research community,” said R. Kip Guy, dean of the UK College of Pharmacy.
For additional information about the NMR Center or to reserve time on the current NMR instruments, please contact Vivek Subramanian at vivek.nmr@uky.edu.
We wish to remember and honor those who inhabited this Commonwealth before the arrival of the Europeans. Briefly occupying these lands were the Osage, Wyndott tribe, and Miami peoples. The Adena and Hopewell peoples, who are recognized by the naming of the time period in which they resided here, were here more permanently. Some of their mounds remain in the Lexington area, including at UK’s Adena Park.
In more recent years, the Cherokee occupied southeast Kentucky, the Yuchi southwest Kentucky, the Chickasaw extreme western Kentucky and the Shawnee central Kentucky including what is now the city of Lexington. The Shawnee left when colonization pushed through the Appalachian Mountains. Lower Shawnee Town ceremonial grounds are still visible in Greenup County.
We honor the first inhabitants who were here, respect their culture, and acknowledge the presence of their descendants who are here today in all walks of life including fellow pharmacists and healthcare professionals.