Advanced NMR technology for bioscience and biotechnology

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). NMR plays critical roles in bioscience and biotechnology in both imaging and structure determination. NMR is limited, however, by the inherent low sensitivity of the NMR experiment and the demands for spectral resolution required to study biomolecules. The authors addressed both of these issues by working on the development of NMR force microscopy for molecular imaging, and high field NMR with isotope labeling to overcome limitations in the size of biomolecules that can be studied using NMR. A novel rf coil design for NMR force microscopy was developed that increases the limits of sensitivity in magnetic resonance detection for imaging, and the authors demonstrated sub-surface spatial imaging capabilities. The authors also made advances in the miniaturization of two critical NMR force microscope components. They completed high field NMR and isotope labeling studies of a muscle protein complex which is responsible for regulating muscle contraction and is too large for study using conventional NMR approaches