Seminar

The CiC bioGUNE NMR platform – VooDoo in the Basque Underground

Tammo Diercks, PhD

CIC bioGUNE houses very sophisticated, ample and precious state-of-the-art equipment for high resolution solution-state NMR spectroscopy. Dr. Diercks will begin with an explanation of the physical basics of NMR that lie deep in the haze of quantum mechanics, but may largely be visualized also by simple analogies. The resulting spectra are composed of individual signals for each magnetically equivalent atom (spin) type. He will then present an overview of the information that NMR can access and quantify with atomic resolution, and illustrate the workflow of biomolecular NMR to study biopolymers like proteins, DNA, or oligosaccharides. These macromolecules produce very complex spectra, where the signals from distinct atoms can no longer be resolved in conventional 1H NMR spectra. Then, labeling with stable 13C and 15N isotopes becomes essential as it allows to disperse the signals in further dimensions of heteronuclear 1H,13C,15N correlation spectra. A combination of such complementary correlation spectra are required to derive the atomic signal assignment. With this crucial information, it is then possible, e.g., to immediately map the interface of a molecular interaction that affects both signal frequency and intensity of involved atoms. This atomic resolution and the unmatched low-affinity sensitivity make solution state NMR a most powerful technique for molecular interaction studies. NMR is furthermore the only technique to derive the structure, conformation and dynamics of amenable molecules in solution and with atomic resolution. Finally, he will present their novel approach for high-resolution studies of oligosaccharides and lipids by 19F NMR, which requires their sparse fluorination. While the impact of this chemical modification must be controlled and minimised, the NMR benefits are enormous since 19F yields the by far best spectral resolution and allows for unambiguous molecular distinction in interaction studies.