Translation Grant for The HIPER project - Bringing the NMR Paradigm to ESR

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In the original Basic Technology program Bringing the NMR Paradigm to ESR technology was developed to deliver complex sequences of very high power mm-wave pulses with sub-nanosecond resolution to a small sample in a strong magnetic field and measure a response from the sample 13 orders of magnitude lower in power, within 1 nanosecond of the final pulse. This was widely regarded as impossible by many leading members of the ESR instrumentation community three years ago. However, after two years developing the necessary mm-wave technologies and one year integrating them into a fully working system, the instrument is now demonstrating these very high levels of performance.The success of that program now opens up major new opportunities in the understanding of fast chemical and biochemical processes and in dramatically improving the sensitivity and resolution of techniques to understand local structure around paramagnetic centres, which often play a central role in determining the catalytic, enzymatic, electronic and optical properties of important chemical, biological and technological systems. It also promises to significantly improve the sensitivity of Site-Directed Spin Labelling techniques that promise to become a generic tool in the understanding of the structure, dynamics, conformational changes, interactions and function of important biomolecules in complex biomolecular processes. The aim of this Translation Grant is to provide underpinning but flexible support that will allow us to fully exploit this technological breakthrough via a series of pilot projects and collaborations.