EU - Spin Chemistry - Grampp - A spin chemistry investigation of short-lived intermediates of biologically important molecules

A powerful arsenal of spin chemistry techniques will be applied to study the reactivity, structural and magnetic properties of elusive radical intermediates of biologically important molecules. We plan to exploit the advantages of the Chemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization and Magnetic Field Affected Reaction Yield Techniques. Due to their capability of sensitively detecting short-lived radical species these techniques are suited to provide unambiguous determination of HFI constants and g-factors of the transient radicals and to allow identifying the elementary steps and mechanisms of the reactions in which they are involved. We plan to apply these techniques in particular to studying the magnetic resonance properties and reactivity of radicals formed in reactions of 1. amino acids and 2. nucleotides, the intramolecular charge transfer in 3. peptides, 4. oligonucleotides and 5. DNA-hairpins, and 6. the magnetic field effects on the enzymatic phosphorylation reaction. Also, the influence of external magnetic fields on biochemical reactions will be analyzed.the time-resolved version of the CIDNP technique will be employed to study the spatial structure and intra-molecular mobility of proteins. A key element of this project is its interdisciplinary character comrpising biological, chemical, and physical approaches.