U.S.-Canada Winter School on Biomolecular Solid State NMR

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Project Summary In the past 10-15 years, solid state NMR (SSNMR) has emerged as a technique that yields important structural data on systems not amenable to examination with either X-ray diffraction, cryo electron microscopy or solution NMR, presently the three pillars of structural biology. In particular, SSNMR experiments have recently produced the first atomic resolution structures of amyloid fibrils, which have been resistant to detailed investigation by other techniques because they are sparingly soluble and do not crystallize in their biologically relevant state. Similar statements are applicable to membrane proteins. These recent successes are a result of fundamental and practical improvements in spectroscopic and sample preparation methods and instrumentation. Concurrently, technology emerging from developments in SSNMR, for example Average Hamiltonian and Floquet theory, has influenced other areas of research such as solution NMR and magnetic resonance imaging. Finally, the renaissance in sensitivity enhancement via dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) originally intended for SSNMR experiments is finding wide application in solution NMR and imaging and is further integrating high field electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and NMR into a single manifold. In order to rapidly propagate these advances to the scientific community we propose to hold the Winter School on Biomolecular Solid State NMR in Stowe, VT January 7-12, 2018 with the aim of developing the workforce for this flourishing scientific area. The principal component of this school will be a series of lectures on fundamental and advanced topics by leading researchers in the field. Topics will include basic aspects of the mathematical theory of modern SSNMR, specific state-of-the-art experimental techniques, methods for preparation of isotopically labeled proteins, data processing and numerical simulation, the development of structural models from SSNMR data, etc. The lectures will be supplemented by problem sets and hands-on demonstrations of software (SpinEvolution, SIMPSON, GAMMA, etc.) currently used to simulate pulsed NMR experiments important for biological solids. Attendance at this school will train graduate and postdoctoral students in the essential techniques and concepts, greatly enhancing the expertise they would otherwise obtain through research projects in their own groups. The Winter School is being organized in response to the very positive feedback that we received from the students and postdoctorals that attended the school in January 2016. As a result we believe the Winter School an extremely important pedagogical event for the blossoming biological NMR community, and differs significantly from the plethora of other meetings on the calendar.