Leipzig Spin Resonance Colloquium

Time-Resolved Biomolecular Solid State NMR and Micron-Scale MRI Enabled by DNP at Very Low Temperatures

I will describe recent results from two projects in which dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at temperatures below 30 K plays an essential role.  In the first project, we have developed methods for initiating biomolecular processes such as protein folding, ligand binding, and amyloid peptide oligomerization and then freeze-trapping transient intermediate states in these processes, with time resolution of about one millisecond.  We use DNP-enhanced solid state NMR at 25-30 K to characterize the molecular structural properties of intermediate states in the resulting frozen solutions.  I will describe the technology and give examples of how this “millisecond time-resolved solid state NMR” approach can provide essential information that (to my knowledge) is not available from any other experimental methods.  In the second project, we are attempting to push the spatial resolution of inductively-detected MRI to the level of one micron or less.  I will discuss the factors that limit spatial resolution in MRI, explain how NMR signal enhancements from DNP at 5 K allowed us to reach 1.7 micron isotropic resolution in recent experiments, and discuss how further technological and methodological developments may make sub-micron resolution a reality.

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