The University’s new Facility for Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP), Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), will officially open on Monday 18 July with an inaugural workshop featuring many world-leading experts in this novel technique.

The Facility is now home to the £2.7m state-of-the-art 600MHz/ 395GHz DNP MAS NMR Spectrometer, which is unique in the UK and will provide unprecedented sensitivity for solid-state NMR experiments in both materials science and life sciences applications.

The establishment of the new Facility, based in the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, at the University follows a history of highly active research into magnetic resonance instrumentation and applications in both the School of Chemistry and the School of Physics and Astronomy. Nobel laureate, Professor Sir Peter Mansfield initially focused his research on solid state NMR before his discovery of spatially resolved MRI. Other Nottingham pioneers in magnetic resonance include Professor Ken Packer who used NMR to investigate porous materials and Professor Raymond Andrews who pioneers the use of MAS to improve the resolution of NMR spectra of solids.

This new Facility makes it possible to study the adsorption of molecules on surfaces and will allow researchers to gain insight into the molecular structure of membrane proteins in living cells. The unique instrument available at the Facility will open up a wide range of new interdisciplinary applications and will attract collaborations across the UK science community.

The Spectremeter and refurbishment of this Facility was funded by an award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to Dr Walter Köckenberger, School of Physics and Astronomy, Dr Jeremy Titman, School of Chemistry and Dr Boyan Bonev, School of Life Sciences.

The upcoming workshop is open to anyone interested in science at the University and will feature experts who will report on recent developments and novel applications of DNP MAS NMR. A detailed programme can be found on the Facility’s webpage, if you’d like to attend for the full day please register on the workshop webpage.