NMR Probe Technology Breakthrough

(Palo Altos, CA, USA), the new Bio-MAS probe incorporates a patent-pending scroll coil design to reduce unnecessary heating by three orders of magnitude compared to a conventional probe. Heating can damage samples of valuable biologic solids. This probe also has been shown to increase a sample's viable experimental lifetime by more than one order of magnitude.

This new technology facilitates researchers' efforts to better determine and understand protein structures such as those linked to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. For biosolids NMR research, many samples are evaluated in the presence of salts; however, the presence of these salts can lead to unwanted heating that can denature the sample proteins, compromising research results and efficacy. In contrast to the solenoid coils used in all current solid-state NMR probes, this new probe's innovative scroll design is more tolerant of high sample salt concentrations and causes less sample heating, which increases the sample's integrity. This design also provides excellent radiofrequency (RF) homogeneity, which contributes to increased sensitivity for complicated biosolids research.

The Bio-MAS probe is now being used in research projects at the UIUC. "The combination of homogeneity, improved sensitivity, and tolerance for high dielectric samples will be especially beneficial for application of solid-state NMR experiments to study large membrane proteins,” remarked Dr. Chad M. Rienstra, assistant professor of chemistry, UIUC. "With solenoid-based designs, many researchers have been unable to apply the most sophisticated pulse sequences to their most important samples, due to their fear of sample damage. Now Varian engineers have, for practical purposes, eliminated that concern and freed us to think more creatively about how to solve protein structures. We believe that the impact on structural biology will be extremely important.”

Jan Tschida, vice president and general manager, NMR and MRI systems, Varian, noted, "The samples used for bio-solids experiments are expensive and difficult to come by, and their loss by thermal denaturation can represent a major threat to research programs. Our novel Bio-MAS probe technology helps researchers preserve those samples for longer periods, while also enhancing system sensitivity and accessibility for studying heat labile proteins.”

Biosolids NMR studies allow access to about 70% of all cellular proteins, including membrane proteins, which are considered solids because they are not free-floating in intracellular fluid. This technology can provide scientists with greater insights into biomarker molecules and proteins tied to a host of disorders.

NMR is the favored nondestructive method for mapping molecular structures and determining how molecules function and interact with each other, including protein structure, dynamics, and function. It is also utilized as a workhorse technology by pharmaceutical and life science scientists for mixture analysis and small molecule structure illumination. An NMR probe holds the molecular sample within the bore of the magnet, at the center of the magnetic fields, and it detects and transmits the RF signals that are then analyzed with sophisticated software to general structural data. Magic angle spinning (MAS) is applied to provide highly resolve spectra for solid state samples.



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