Laser- and cryogenic probe-assisted NMR enables hypersensitive analysis of biomolecules at submicromolar concentration.

Solution-state NMR typically requires 100 μM to 1 mM samples. This limitation prevents applications to mass-limited and aggregation-prone target molecules. Photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization was adapted to data collection on low-concentration samples by radiofrequency gating, enabling rapid 1D NMR spectral acquisition on aromatic amino acids and proteins bearing aromatic residues at nanomolar concentration, i.e., a full order of magnitude below other hyperpolarization techniques in liquids. Both backbone H1-C13 and side-chain resonances were enhanced, enabling secondary and tertiary structure analysis of proteins with remarkable spectral editing, via the 13C PREPRINT pulse sequence. Laser-enhanced 2D NMR spectra of 5 μM proteins at 600 MHz display 30-fold better S/N than conventional 2D data collected at 900 MHz. Sensitivity enhancements achieved with this technology, denoted as low-concentration photo-CIDNP (LC-photo-CIDNP), depend only weakly on laser intensity, highlighting the opportunity of safer and more cost-effective hypersensitive NMR applications employing low-power laser sources.