Enhancements in NMR sensitivity have been the main driving force to extend the boundaries of NMR applications. Recently, techniques to shift the thermally populated nuclear spin states are employed to gain high NMR signals. Here, we introduce a technique called photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP) and discuss its progresses in enhancing the solution-state NMR sensitivity.

The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and atomic magnetic resonance (AMR) plays a fundamental role in achieving a high accuracy of magnetic field measurements. Magnetic field unit (T) was realized based on the shielded proton gyromagnetic ratio (${\gamma}^{\prime}_P$), helium-4 gyromagnetic ratio (${\gamma}_{4He}$) and related techniques. The magnetic field standard system has been disseminated by the NMR magnetometer and electromagnet, a Helmholtz coil system, and AMR magnetometer in the nonmagnetic laboratory. A magnetic field standard below 1 mT has been developed by using Cs and Cs- $^4He$ AMR with automatic compensation of an external magnetic field noise. The standards serve for the calibration of magnetometers and support the test of sensors and materials in the range from $5{\mu}T$ to 2.0 T with (1 to 50) ${\mu}T/T$ uncertainty (k=2).

Human sterol ${\Delta}8-{\Delta}7$ isomerase, commonly known as emopamil binding protein (EBP), is an essential protein in the cholesterol-synthetic pathway, and mutations of this protein are critically associated with human diseases such as Conradi-Hunermann-Happle or male EBP disorder with neurological defects syndrome. Due to such a clinical importance, EBP has been intensively investigated and some important features have been reported. EBP is a tetra-spanning membrane protein, of which $2^{nd}$, $3^{rd}$, and $4^{th}$ membrane-spanning ${\alpha}$ helices play an important role in its enzymatic function. However, detailed structural feature at atomic resolution has not yet been elucidated, due to characteristic difficulties in dealing with membrane protein. Here, we over-expressed EBP using Escherichia coli and performed detergent screening to find suitable membrane mimetics for structural studies of the protein by NMR. As results, DPC and LMPG could be evaluated as the most favorable detergents to acquire promising NMR spectra for structural study of EBP.

The cytoplasmic domains A and B of the mannitol transporter enzyme $II^{Mtl}$ are covalently linked in Escherichia coli, but separately expressed in Thermoanaerobacter Tengcongensis. The phosphorylation of domain B ($TtIIB^{Mtl}$) substantially increases the binding affinity to the domain A ($TtIIA^{Mtl}$) in T. Tengcongensis. To understand the structural basis of the enhanced domain-domain interaction by protein phosphorylation, we obtained NMR backbone assignments of the phospho-$TtIIB^{Mtl}$ using a standard suite of triple resonance experiments. Our results will be useful to monitor chemical shift changes at the active site of phosphorylation and the binding interfaces.

Dynamic properties of proteins can present key information on protein-ligand and protein-protein interaction. Despite their usefulness, the properties of protein dynamics have not been obtained easily due to protein stability and short-term measurement. Here, it is shown that combined method for analysis of dynamical properties. It utilizes predicted order parameter and NMR relaxation data such as $T_1$, $T_2$, and heteronuclear NOE. The suggested method could be used to know the flexibility of protein roughly without precise dynamical parameters such as order parameters through model-free analysis.

Together with radiotherapy, chemotherapy using cytotoxic agents is one of the most common therapies in cancer. Metabolic changes in cancer cells are drawing much attention recently, but the metabolic alterations by anticancer agents have not been much studied. Here, we investigated the effects of commonly used cytotoxic agents on lung normal cell MRC5 and lung cancer cell A549. We employed cis-plastin, doxorubicin, and 5-Fluorouracil and compared their effects on the viability and metabolism of the normal and cancer cell lines. We first established the concentration of the cytotoxic reagents that give differences in the viabilities of normal and cancer cell lines. In those conditions, the viability of A549 decreased significantly, whereas that of MRC5 remained unchanged. To study the metabolic alterations implicated in the viability differences, we obtained the metabolic profiles using $^1H$-NMR spectrometry. The $^1H$-NMR data showed that the metabolic changes of A549 cells are more remarkable than that of MRC5 cells and the effect of 5-FU on the A549 cells is the most distinct compared to other treatments. Heat map analysis showed that metabolic alterations under treatment of cytotoxic agents are totally different between normal and cancer cells. Multivariate analysis and weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) revealed a distinctive metabolite signature and hub metabolites. Two different analysis tools revealed that the changes of cell metabolism in response to cytotoxic agents were highly correlated with the Warburg effect and Reductive lipogenesis, two pathways having important effects on the cell survival. Taken together, our study addressed the correlation between the viability and metabolic profiles of MRC5 and A549 cells upon the treatment of cytotoxic anticancer agents.