National Biomedical Center for Advanced ESR Technology
From BTRR
Overview
The National Biomedical Center for Advanced ESR Technology (ACERT) is an outgrowth of extensive experience in developing the methods of modern electron spin resonance (ESR), now being disseminated to the biomedical community. In addition to making equipment and facilities available to outside scientists, publishing and advertising results, and running workshops on the new methodologies, ACERT also addresses the need to bring these new technologies to other laboratories. The center's collaborators cover a wide range of biomedical research areas, emphasizing the central role that modern ESR methods plays. The principal areas of core research are as follows:
Distance measurements in proteins and aggregates using pulsed dipolar ESR: To advance the center's knowledge of structure and function of biomolecules using longer distance constraints, provided by site-directed spin labeling and pulsed ESR distance measurements.
Pulsed two-dimensional (2-D) ESR: The development of 2D-ELDOR in the study of the dynamic structure of membranes and proteins as well as lipid-protein interactions.
Functional dynamics of proteins: The study of protein folding and unfolding and transient structural changes.
ESR microscopy: To provide micron resolution in three-dimensional imaging of biological samples.
Instrumental developments in high-frequency, high-field (HFHF) ESR: To further develop quasi-optical techniques for HFHF-ESR to unravel the complex dynamics in biological systems.
High-power pulsed HFHF ESR: To extend high-power pulsed ESR to the millimeter-wave regime, to benefit from the improved orientational resolution and faster "snapshot" feature at higher frequencies.
Multifrequency studies of dynamics: To advance knowledge of dynamics in proteins, DNA, and membranes by a mixture of multifrequency and multidimensional ESR.
Theoretical and computational methods: To improve the methods for interpreting multifrequency spectra in terms of powerful algorithms based on the stochastic Liouville equation and on molecular dynamics simulations.
Current Research
Distance measurements: Structures of protein complexes and membrane proteins. 2-D-ELDOR: Dynamics of model and biological membrane domains.
Functional dynamics: Integration of pulsed 2D-ESR with continuous and stopped-flow techniques.
ESR microscopy: Imaging microspheres for drug delivery and the imaging of cells.
HFHF ESR: Multifrequency studies of dynamics.
Pulsed HFHF ESR: High-power, 95-GHz pulsed ESR studies of dynamics in membranes and protein structure.
