Distances by site-specific DNP for biomolecular structure determination
Björn Corzilius (University of Rostock) / Georg Künze (Leipzig University) / Thomas Wiegand (RWTH Aachen University & Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion Mülheim a. d. R.)
Goal
We aim to investigate the distance dependence of direct DNP under magic-angle spinning NMR and develop experiments for modeling of atomic distances in biomolecules based on such measurements.
Challenge
We plan to implement a combined approach relying on paramagnetic solid-state NMR, direct DNP with paramagnetic metal ions and structural modelling to facilitate biomolecular structure determination of proteins and protein-nucleic acid complexes.
Impact
This project will not only provide fundamental insight into the mechanism of the initial DNP transfer and ways to control site-specificity in DNP, but also develop a new method for the toolbox of integrated structural biology allowing to access currently unaccessible long-range distance restraints.