Magnetic resonance in biology

Abstract

DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS high-resolution nuclear magnetic-resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become a powerful technique for investigating the molecular and electronic structure of biological compounds. The high sensitivity and resolution of recently developed spectrometers with superconducting solenoids has made possible many new applications and has yielded data not obtainable by other methods. NMR experiments can be done under conditions similar to the physiological environment of the molecules: in aqueous solution and at body temperature. Thus with NMR it is often possible to establish relations between data on the structure of biological compounds in the solid state, obtained by techniques like x-ray crystallography, and the corresponding molecular properties in solution.