This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 657682.

Researcher: Zdeněk Tošner

Host institution: Technische Univertsität München

Period: 1.9.2015-31.8.2017

Summary

Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) is an experimental method that allows structure elucidation of macromolecules. As part of the structural biology toolbox, its results contribute to our understanding of basics of life and it assists in the search for effective drugs. The project OPTIMAL-NMR aimed at improving quality and sensitivity of ssNMR measurements using advanced experimental methods developed by means of optimal control theory. Such methods have been suggested in the past but have not been used, despite their predicted benefits. The OPTIMAL-NMR project systematically evaluated possible reasons why ssNMR optimal control (OC) experiments performed only poorly compared to idealized numerical simulations. It was found that it is due to temporal variations in the excitation field induced by sample rotation in a spatially inhomogeneous field of the excitation coil. The project concluded with a recipe how to develop robust OC experiments that can compensate for such complications. Using a specific example of ssNMR experiment on protein samples, an improvement over 50% in signal-to-noise ratio compared to conventional methods has been demonstrated. This result leads to an increased accessibility of structural information from the acquired ssNMR spectra and contributes to progress in structural biology.