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

在最初的基础技术计划中，将核磁共振范式引入ESR技术是为了在强磁场中向小样本提供具有亚纳秒分辨率的高功率毫米波脉冲的复杂序列，并在最终脉冲的1纳秒内测量样品的响应，其功率降低了13个数量级。三年前，ESR仪器社区的许多主要成员普遍认为这是不可能的。然而，经过两年开发必要的毫米波技术和一年将它们集成到一个完全工作的系统后，该仪器现在显示出这些非常高水平的性能。该计划的成功现在为理解快速化学和生化过程以及显着提高理解顺磁中心周围局部结构的技术的灵敏度和分辨率开辟了重要的新机会，顺磁中心通常在确定重要的化学，生物和技术系统的催化，酶，电子和光学性质方面发挥核心作用。它还有望显著提高定点自旋标记技术的灵敏度，这些技术有望成为理解复杂生物分子过程中重要生物分子的结构、动力学、构象变化、相互作用和功能的通用工具。这笔翻译基金的目的是提供基础但灵活的支持，使我们能够通过一系列试点项目和合作充分利用这一技术突破。

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.