Development of NMR Methodology

Summary

Successful structure determination in solution of proteins and nucleic acids using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques critically depends on continuous improvement of the quality of the NMR experiments used. We currently operate six state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers spanning the 1H frequency range from 400 to 900 MHz. All instruments are equipped with pulsed field gradient units, four or five radio-frequency channels and cryoprobes (except 750 MHz). The instruments are located in highly shielded environments.
Our current efforts in the development of new NMR experiments are concentrated on the further exploitment of the principles of APSY (Automated Projection Spectroscopy) and TROSY (Transverse Relaxation Optimized Spectroscopy). APSY involves novel experimental and computational approaches for the fully automated analysis of projection spectra for routine protein structure determination. The result from APSY is the fully automated generation of peak lists for N-dimensional NMR spectra using the algorithm GAPRO (geometric analysis of projections). Current work focuses on the use of APSY as a starting point for fully automated assignment of protein/RNA/DNA NMR spectra.

Index Terms

NMR Structure Determination, Pulse-Sequences, TROSY, NMR techniques, APSY, GAPRO

Supported By

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds

In Collaboration With

B. Krähenbühl, S. Hiller, T. Stahel