Proton-detected experiments

The 1H nucleus is characterized by high sensitivity, high natural abundance and a ubiquitous presence. This makes the proton an attractive nucleus for structural studies also in solid-state NMR. On the other side, the dominant homonuclear dipolar interactions usually lead in solids to broad 1H resonances, which obscure all details in the spectrum such as the chemical-shift information.

Enlarged view: Ubiquitin
1H-detected spectrum of Ubiquitin at 90 kHz MAS frequency

Fast MAS and very high static magnetic fields allow the implementation of experiments based on 1H detection which, in combination with extensive degree of deuteration in proteins, can increase coherence lifetimes and spectral resolution in 1H solid-state NMR. We have been working at the development of pulse sequences based on proton detection in partially deuterated proteins.
Recently, we have shown that employing proton-detected NMR experiments at 100 kHz MAS it is possible to determine the de novo 3D structure from sub-milligram protein samples.

Collaboration with external pageAnja Böckmann (IBCP Lyon, France), external pageAgo Samoson (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia) and external pageVipin Agarwal (TIFR Hyderabad, India).

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