Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a powerful and unique tool for the study of matter in its various states, including solids, liquids, liquid crystals, and biological materials. With the use of experimental and theoretical NMR methods, one can obtain knowledge of the equilibrium structural properties and molecular dynamics of liquid crystals and phospholipid membranes. The…Continue Reading Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics
Month: November 2023
GPCR Projects
GPCR Background Knowledge G-protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute about 50% of the known pharmaceutical drugs and play very important role in a lot of physiological processes like in regulating the heart-beat. Despite its importance in the physiological processes, not much is known about GPCRs since it is challenging to work with GPCRs. Using rhodopsin as a…Continue Reading GPCR Projects
Spectroscopy of Membrane Lipid Bilayers
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a powerful and unique tool for the study of matter in its various states, including solids, liquids, liquid crystals, and biological materials. With solid-state 2H NMR spectroscopy, we obtain experimental data pertinent to both structure and dynamics. The role of lipid bilayer membranes is crucial. First, the membrane lipids provide a…Continue Reading Spectroscopy of Membrane Lipid Bilayers
Selected Publication NMR
Selected Publications Kinnun, J. J., Mallikarjunaiah, K. J., Petrache, H. I., and Brown, M. F. (2015), Elastic Deformation and Area Per Lipid of Membranes: Atomistic View From Solid-State Deuterium NMR Spectroscopy, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1848, 246–259. Struts, A. V., Chawla, U., Perera, S. M. D. C., and Brown, M. F. (2015), Investigation of Rhodopsin Dynamics in its…Continue Reading Selected Publication NMR
Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy
Advancing the frontiers of biomolecular NMR spectroscopy Biomembranes are liquid-crystalline systems, and X-ray crystallography provides only a partial view of their functions. Knowledge of both structure and dynamics is needed to understand their mechanisms of action. Our group developed solid-state NMR methods such as order parameter analysis, relaxation methods. There was little understanding of how…Continue Reading Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy
Femtosecond X-ray Scattering
The advent of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) opens up entirely new horizons in chemistry, biology, and physics. The XFEL pulses have a peak brilliance that is 10^9 stronger than any synchrotron X-ray radiation. Before the introduction of XFELs, the investigation of time-dependent change in crystals was restricted to Laue crystallography, which needs reversible photoreactions to acquire…Continue Reading Femtosecond X-ray Scattering