NMR-based Structural Biology

In Parkinson’s patients, alpha-synuclein proteins clump together to form fibrils, which presumably damage nerve cells. A research team has now shown how lipids bind to these fibrils and influence their arrangement. They also demonstrated how the drug candidate anle138b attaches to the lipidic fibrils. The findings could open up new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. more

It looks like a giant thermos flask and weighs eight tons. Not only because of that is the new 1.2 GHz spectrometer a heavy weight in the worldwide science community: With its magnetic field strength, it sets new standards in high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy: 28.2 Tesla –almost 600,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field. Presently, there are only three of these high tech instruments; in addition to Florence and Zurich, there is now one in Göttingen at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry. more