Dynamics and Characterization of Long-Lived Hyperpolarized Molecules in Magnetic Resonance

在这个由化学系化学结构、动力学和机制计划资助的项目中，杜克大学的沃伦·S·沃伦教授将从实验上确定并从理论上理解结构材料中单重态自旋弛豫时间的基本极限。这包括合成优化的下一代磁共振试剂，目标是测量特定的代谢和酶过程，并澄清分子动力学问题。这里的目标是使用量子力学来设计分子，这种分子可以保持超极化的时间比传统方法提供的几秒钟长得多，从而扩大了它们的用途。拟议活动的智力价值来自于整合看似不同的领域(量子计算中的消相干减少；化学物理、合成有机化学、分子生物学)，以解决关于自旋动力学的基本问题。更广泛的影响包括这项工作有可能给材料成像和体内磁共振光谱学带来革命性的变化。这项工作将极大地提高新开发的方法的实用性，这些方法将正常情况下看不见的分子转变为核磁共振(核磁共振)和磁共振成像(MRI)的“灯泡”，从而阐明化学动力学。沃伦教授和他的学生将创造出比目前可用的秒数长得多的“灯泡”化合物，从而可以研究生化反应等较慢的过程。这两个领域的长期影响都可能是深远的；例如，几乎所有的MRI扫描都只是水的扫描，这可能允许使用检测特定疾病途径的分子进行扫描。

In this project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Warren S. Warren of Duke University will determine experimentally and understand theoretically the fundamental limits of singlet spin relaxation times in structured materials. This involves synthesis of optimized, next-generation magnetic resonance agents targeted to measure specific metabolic and enzymatic processes and clarify questions on molecular dynamics. The goal here is to use quantum mechanics to design molecules which can preserve hyperpolarization far longer than the few seconds available by traditional methods, thus broadening their utility. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity comes from the integration of seemingly disparate fields (decoherence reduction in quantum computing; chemical physics, synthetic organic chemistry, molecular biology) to address fundamental questions about spin dynamics. Broader impacts include the potential this work has to revolutionize materials imaging and in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This work will dramatically improve the utility of newly developed methods which turn normally invisible molecules into nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) "light bulbs" and thus elucidate chemical dynamics. Professor Warren and his students will create compounds which act as "light bulbs" far longer than the seconds currently available, thus permitting studies of slower processes such as biochemical reactions. The long term impact in both fields could be profound; for example, almost all MRI scans are only of water, and this could permit scans using molecules that detect specific disease pathways.