An NMR technique that allows solid, gel and solution-state chemistry to be studied simultaneously has been applied to a living organism for the first time. By demonstrating the technique on live shrimp, the US-led team hope the method will eventually unpick chemical processes in larger biological systems.
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Whilst solution-state NMR spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) routinely explore living systems, they only reveal information on fully solubilised molecules. If you want to study insoluble biological material such as membranes, muscle or bone, solution-phase NMR won’t work. Yet to combat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, caused by soluble proteins crystallising into solid fibres, it’s essential more information is gained about the chemistry occurring across these interfaces. Read the full article in Chemistry World»
Read the original journal article in Chemical Science – it’s open access:
Comprehensive multiphase NMR applied to a living organism
Yalda Liaghati Mobarhan, Blythe Fortier-McGill, Ronald Soong, Werner E. Maas, Michael Fey, Martine Monette, Henry J. Stronks, Sebastian Schmidt, Hermann Heumann, Warren Norwood and André J. Simpson
Chem. Sci., 2016, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C6SC00329J, Edge Article
