PEABODY, MA - JEOL Ltd., Akishima, Japan, a global leader in the design and manufacture of scientific instrumentation, and the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ) have formed a new joint venture company dedicated to the development of next-generation NMR instrumentation.

The new spinoff, JEOL Resonance Inc., will allow the flow of technology and expertise beyond the boundaries of existing organizational structures through a new “open innovation” concept. A network of collaborators from research institutes, universities and suppliers, plus an investment of 1.5 billion yen from INCJ, is the spark for a revitalized effort in research and development of advanced NMR systems. Additional funding will come from JASTEC, the only Japanese manufacturer of superconducting magnets for NMR.

NMR, or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, is used to determine the structure of molecules by analyzing the specific resonance frequency of the nuclei of atoms. NMR excels in the analysis of organic compounds and macromolecules. Applications are expanding beyond the domain of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food and chemistry into the emerging and exponentially growing new fields of organic electro-luminescence devices, thin-film batteries and alternative energy research.

This sophisticated instrumentation is comprised of several technologies including digital radio frequency (RF) engineering, superconducting magnets and NMR probe design, such as the new ultra-fast 1mm 80 kHz magic angle spinning probe for solid-state analysis recently introduced by JEOL.