The Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Conference (ENC) celebrated its 64th conference April 16-21, 2023 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. Beginning in 1959 and established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1987, the conference was organized with the following stated goals:
- Promote the interest of molecular spectroscopy in general and NMR spectroscopy, in particular;
- Organize an international meeting for the exchange of state-of-the-art information with special attention on experimental aspects of NMR spectroscopy.
Although ENC is not hosted in a single location, the conference has a long history with the
Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds. The conference grounds are situated along Asilomar State Beach, which is part of the Asilomar Marine Reserve and boasts a rich and biodiverse ecosystem, and close to the Asilomar Dunes Natural Preserve, which features 25 acres of pedestrian boardwalk through the sand dune ecosystem.
As a conference, ENC is excellent for networking with the thought leaders of today’s NMR community in company-hosted hospitality suites. JEOL hosted their events in the Fred Farr Forum, including the JEOL Announcement Night, NMR Mini Symposium, iPad Raffle, and more.
JEOL Announcement Night
JEOL’s Announcement Night kicked off Tuesday, 4/18. Highlights of the presentation included the following:
- New ECZL System – Our new NMR ECZL G series is a flagship model for cutting-edge NMR methods. The footprint of the spectrometer has been reduced to less than 60% of ECZR, while maintaining the expandability needed to support a wide range of applications. It is flexible in terms of expansion, with support for three or more channels, high-power amplifiers, and high-output magnetic field gradients, allowing for future functional expansion even when installed in the minimum configuration
- ROYALPROBE™ HFX – The ROYALPROBE™ HFX is the world's first liquid NMR probe with the capability to switch between single tune and dual tune modes on the high frequency coil. This expands the capability of a standard workhorse NMR, making it an excellent choice for scientists looking to achieve the maximum impact of their instrument.
- Cryogenic Probes for NMR – JEOL offers two ultrahigh sensitivity autotune probes using cryogenic probe technology: The SuperCOOL Cryogenic Probe and the UltraCOOL Cryogenic Probe.
- The SuperCOOL Probe features significantly improved sensitivity as its thermal noise is reduced by cooling of both the detection coil and preamplifier. The SuperCOOL probe reduces measurement times to up to 75% to enable many more samples to be measured in a single day.
- The UltraCOOL Probe achieves more than 4 times the sensitivity of conventional probes while thermal noise is reduced by cooling of both the detection coil and preamplifier. Measurement times using the UltraCOOL probe are only 1/16 that of a conventional probe.
- Cryogen Reclamation System – JEOL’s new Cryogen Reclamation System offers a convenient, reliable, and highly effective solution to managing and maintaining your NMR instrument’s cryogen levels. This system maximizes NMR instrument uptime and reduces the risk of shutdown due to cryogen supply issues by substantially reduces the evaporation of liquid helium and liquid nitrogen from the superconducting magnet.
NMR Mini Symposium
The JEOL NMR Mini Symposium included six scientific presentations covering a range of NMR topics. Speakers included:
- Paul Ellis, Daniel Arcos, and F. David Doty, Doty Scientific - Spin Echoes, Sensitivity, Wurst (Adiabatic) Pulses, and Artifact Suppression Utilizing Modern ssProbes
- Professor Federico Del Rio, UNAM, Mexico - Structure of Arachnid Toxin by NMR
- Ronald Crouch, JEOL USA - Balancing the Robust and Convenient with the Challenging
- Yusuke Nishiyama, JEOL LTD - 14N Solid State NMR at Fast MAS
- Peter Kirali, JEOL UK - The Hidden Gem of Data Processing in JASON
- Manuel Perez, JEOL UK - JASON: Advanced Functionality, Enabling Automaton
In case you missed it, you can view our NMR Mini Symposium on-demand.
NMR Technical Presentations
In addition to our Mini Symposium, JEOL scientists contributed to two technical talks. The first took place on Monday 4/17 and was presented by Genevieve Seabrook:
“Small GTPases are regulators mediating important cellular functions. These sGTPases are often mutated in human cancers. We have developed a real-time multiplex NMR assay allowing the following of several sGTPases nucleotide exchange in a single experiment. Along with sGTPase proteins strategically selectively labeled, time-shared NMR methodology was used to reduce acquisition time. Analysis of sGTPases amides chemical shift changes, allowed us to identify residues that have been perturbed during the nucleotide exchange and the resulting structural changes within the sGTPases. A mixture of six sGTPases was used to assay GEF activities present in cells lysates and in organoids lysates. A combination of selective isotopic labeling and real-time, time-shared NMR experiments can be extended to other biological processes”
The second, 1H CSA: Friend or Foe?, was presented by Frederic A. Perras:
“Despite the high sensitivity, and recent resurgence, of 1H solid-state NMR, measurements of 1H chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) have remained rather niche. In many instances, we would even consider it a nuisance that leads to decoherence and t1 noise in 1H dipolar recoupling. This presentation will cover the development of highly stable dipolar recoupling methods that decouple the 1H CSA in addition to new 1H CSA recoupling schemes that enable the measurement of tensor skew, and small anisotropies. Lastly, the utility and limitations of 1H CSA for the measurement of dynamic information in low sensitivity samples, such as heterogeneous catalysts, will be discussed.”
NMR Technical Posters
JEOL presented four technical posters at ENC 2023. The first, titled “Simplifying triple resonance experiment for high quality NMR spectra with Multi Frequency Drive System” and presented by Hiroaki Sasakawa, explored our new Multi Frequency Drive System, which is available on our
ECZ Luminous NMR console:
“Organic compounds with phosphorus and boron nuclei often exhibit spectral complexity and reduced sensitivity in NMR analysis due to J couplings between hydrogen and carbon with these nuclei. We developed a triple resonance system called Multi Frequency Drive System (MFDS) to address this issue, enabling triple resonance experiments with a standard 2-channel NMR system. Using a JEOL JNM-ECZL600G spectrometer equipped with the ROYALPROBE™ P+, we conducted various solution NMR measurements. We present examples of signal enhancement and spectrum simplification achieved by triple resonance measurements of 1H, 31P, and 11B collected with a 2-channel NMR instrument.”
The second poster focused on our new 1.01 GHz NMR system. Titled “Development and applications of a 1.01 GHz (23.7 T) NMR system,” this poster was presented by Yoshitaka Ishii:
“We discuss development of an ultra-compact 1.01 GHz NMR magnet, and its preliminary NMR applications. The new ultra-compact 1GHz NMR magnet utilizes high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils made of bismuth-based cuprates besides conventional low temperature superconducting coils. Because of the high current density of the HTS coil, the magnet weighs only 1.6 tons and its footprint is the smallest among the existing 1 GHz NMR systems. The cryogenic refrigerator mounted on the magnet eliminates needs of regular liquid-helium refilling. We have successfully collected multi-dimensional solution NMR and solid-state NMR data for proteins at a 1H frequency of 1.01 GHz. The quality of the NMR data and other research progress from the ongoing project to develop 1.3 GHz NMR will be also discussed.”
The third technical poster, presented by Takuya Matsumoto and title “Cryogen Reclamation System for NMR Magnets” offers a solution for evaporation of cryogens:
“NMR magnets are usually cooled by two kinds of cryogens, ie.liquid helium and liquid nitrogen. The boil-off rates of the cryogen in general NMR magnets are typically around 20 cc/h for liquid helium and 200 cc/h for liquid nitrogen. We have developed new cryogen reclamation system that can greatly suppress the evaporation both of liquid helium and liquid nitrogen. The system was tested with an NMR magnet, and it was confirmed that the noise generated by system vibration was at a level that would not interfere with NMR measurements. It has also confirmed that the magnet maintained stable zero boil-off status for more than 6 months.”
The fourth technical poster was presented by Yutaro Ogaeri and titled “Internuclear Distance Measurements between 1H and 14N in Multi-Component Rigid Solids at Fast MAS”:
“1H-14N internuclear distances are readily and accurately measured using the symmetry-based phase modulated resonance-echo saturation-pulse double-resonance (PM-S-RESPDOR) method in rigid solids. Analytical equation of the fraction curve easily provides 1H-14N couplings. However, this treatment is only applicable when NH proton resonance is well separated from the other proton peaks, which is not necessarily satisfied even at fast MAS >60kHz, especially in multi-component systems. To overcome this problem, THMQC filtering is applied to suppress the 1H signals other than NH proton prior to the PM-S-RESPDOR experiments. The method is well demonstrated on two components acetaminophen-oxalic acid (APAP-OXA) systems.”
New ECZ Luminous NMR Console
Our new NMR ECZL G series is a flagship model for cutting-edge NMR methods. The footprint of the spectrometer has been reduced to less than 60% of ECZR, while maintaining the expandability needed to support a wide range of applications. It is flexible in terms of expansion, with support for three or more channels, high-power amplifiers, and high-output magnetic field gradients, allowing for future functional expansion even when installed in the minimum configuration.
Learn more about the ECZL.