Solution NMR methods
Team members
Isabel Ayala (protein engineer)
Bernhard Brutscher (CEA research director)
Arijit Maity (PhD student)
Rory Munro (PhD student)
Adrien Favier (research engineer)
Alicia Vallet (NMR platform engineer)
Presentation
A major research theme of our team is the development of optimized NMR pulse sequences and spectral analysis tools for biomolecular applications. Recent efforts have focused on the development of fast multidimensional data acquisition techniques, especially polarization-enhanced fast-pulsing methods (SOFAST, BEST, …). Such methods not only prove useful for speeding up NMR data collection, but they also provide new opportunities for site-resolved kinetic real-time NMR investigation. We are particularly interested in applying our fast NMR techniques, in combination with other biophysical methods, to kinetic events such as the folding of proteins and nucleic acids, the structural and dynamic characterization of transiently populated excited states, the influence of chaperone proteins on the folding kinetics, as well as light-induced protein conformational dynamics in light-sensing proteins. We have also assembled dedicated hardware for in-situ (in the NMR magnet) fast mixing of solutions and sample illumination by laser light.
Recent publications
- Favier, A., and B. Brutscher. 2019. NMRlib: user-friendly pulse sequence tools for Bruker NMR spectrometers. J. Biomol. NMR. 73: 199–211.
- Vallet, A., A. Favier, and B. Brutscher. 2019. Aromatic SOFAST-HMBC for proteins at natural 13C abundance. J. Magn. Reson. 300: 95–102.
- Christou, N.E., and B. Brutscher. 2018. BEST and SOFAST experiments for resonance assignment of histidine and tyrosine side chains in 13C/15N labeled proteins. J. Biomol. NMR. 72: 115–124.
- Rennella, E., T.S. Sára, M. Juen, C. Wunderlich, L. Imbert, Z. Solyom, A. Favier, I. Ayala, K. Weinhäupl, P. Schanda, R. Konrat, C. Kreutz, and B. Brutscher. 2017. RNA binding and chaperone activity of the E. coli cold-shock protein CspA. Nucleic Acids Res. : 1–14.
- Franco, R., S. Gil-Caballero, I. Ayala, A. Favier, and B. Brutscher. 2017. Probing conformational exchange dynamics in a short-lived protein folding intermediate by real-time relaxation-dispersion NMR. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139.
- Franco, R., A. Favier, P. Schanda, and B. Brutscher. 2017. Optimized fast mixing device for real-time NMR applications. J. Magn. Reson. 281: 125–129.
