2nd U.S.-Canada Winter School on Biomolecular Solid State NMR

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the past 5-10 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 or solution NMR, presently the two pillars of structural biology. For example, SSNMR experiments have recently produced some of the first structures of membrane peptides and proteins and the first experimentally-determined structures of amyloid fibrils, which have been resistant to detailed investigation by other techniques because they are insoluble and do not crystallize in their biologically relevant state. These recent successes are a result of fundamental and practical improvements in spectroscopic and sample preparation methods. Concurrently, technology emerging from developments in SSNMR, for example Average Hamiltonian 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 2nd Winter School on Biomolecular Solid State NMR in Stowe, VT January 24-29, 2010. 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, assessment of practical advantages of specific state-of-the-art experimental techniques, methods for preparation of isotopically labeled proteins and peptides, 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 expose graduate and postdoctoral students to a broad spectrum of essential techniques and concepts, greatly enhancing the more specialized training they would otherwise obtain through specific research projects in their own research groups. This is the 2nd SSNMR school and is being organized in response to the very positive feedback that we received from the students and postdoctorals that attended the 1st school in January 2008. As a result we believe the Winter School an extremely important pedagogical event for the blossoming solid state biological NMR community.