Oxford Instruments presents NMR enhancement tool

Oxford Instruments Molecular Biotools (OIMBL) have introduced an instrument, which it claims will revolutionise the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy field by amplifying the baseline sensitivity of NMR systems by a factor of up to 104.

The capabilities of the HyperSense will make this instrument the first commercial product of its kind and will enable researchers to achieve new levels of information quality and richness, while opening up the field of practical NMR analysis to entirely new areas of research.

HyperSense is a modular instrument that will attach to any conventional NMR system to deliver polarisation-enhanced samples using a solid-state dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) method.

The technology in HyperSense (which is complementary with other NMR enhancement methods), features a minimal footprint, single user operation and will be compatible with a variety of standard NMR solvents, probes and spectrometers, and feature a seamless automation system that facilitates NMR data acquisition with little manual intervention.

NMR is a revered laboratorial method as it provides a wealth of information as well as unrivalled sensitivity. HyperSense is directly applicable to 1-D applications in NMR.

Additional applications include structure confirmation and elucidation of small molecular structures of drug candidate libraries, as well as conformational and metabolomic studies. OIMBL said that any laboratory wanting to look at 13C and 15N in their natural abundance will be interested in this novel instrument, as it avoids time-consuming and labour-intensive enrichment processes that were previously requisite.

"HyperSense will be the first commercial system, which enables users to surpass previous experimental barriers and increase the applicability of NMR spectroscopy with an approach that is unique from all other enhancement methods," said Frank Trundle, business director of OIMBL.

"OIMBL is currently working with NMR groups to develop applications in ligand screening, metabolomics, and analysis of complex biomixtures. Other application areas could include: ADME studies, impurity identification, real-time kinetic reaction measurements, and drug library screening."

OIMBL also said that the company was also planning to introduce an automated instrument to deliver repeatable results for use with liquid state NMR.