A system and method for detecting a nucleus of interest in a chemical using a nuclear quadrupole resonance transition. An excitation pulse is used to excite one or more nuclei of interest, if they present in a sample, to an excited state, the energy of which depends on the magnetic field in the sample. The magnetic field in the sample is modulated, after the end of the excitation pulse, while the nuclei of interest decay from the excited state, so that the radiation they emit is frequency modulated. The frequency modulation is detected in the emitted radiation. In some embodiments a DC magnetic field is applied to the sample, during the application of the excitation pulse, to tune the frequency of the transition being excited.

The invention provides methods for processing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data to assign resonance peaks in an NMR spectrum of a molecule to atomic nuclei in said molecule, based on graph-theoretical principles. In particular, the methods of the invention may be employed in the assignment of data obtained from methyl-TROSY spectroscopy of proteins.

Systems and methods for measuring macromolecular proton fraction in a subject are provided. A nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus applies a magnetic field to a body region on the subject, and radiofrequency modes are applied to the body region as well. Each radiofrequency mode delivers a plurality of radiofrequency pulses separated by time delays, wherein at least one of the radiofrequency modes causes suppression of signal components from an unwanted tissue, and at least one of the radiofrequency modes causes magnetization exchange between water and macromolecules in tissues in the body region. Amplitudes corresponding to magnetic signals received from the body region are measured and macromolecular proton fraction based on the amplitudes can be calculated.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry generates, from a first image influenced by a magnetic field distortion, a second image in which the influence of the distortion is corrected, receives a first area setting in the second image and calculates, by a method of the calculation depending on an imaging purpose, an excitation area in the imaging based on the first area.

A method to detect transient binding of a substrate molecule of interest in solution to a molecular target includes selecting the substrate molecule of interest and the molecular target such that the substrate molecule of interest can transiently bind to the molecular target; placing one of a sample or a subject of interest in a magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus, the sample or the subject of interest containing the substrate molecule of interest so as to be in contact with the molecular target; providing magnetic labelling of non-exchangeable or slowly exchangeable MR sensitive nuclei of the substrate molecule of interest; receiving an MR signal from the MR sensitive nuclei of the solvent molecules using the MR apparatus; and analyzing the MR signal to obtain a quantity associated with the transient binding of the substrate molecule of interest to the molecular target.

Computing systems and methods for characterizing a protein are provided. Each residue in a subset of the protein is in an amino acid type set and is represented by a vertex in a graph G formed from an atomic model of the protein. NMR data, acquired with some of the residues of the protein isotopically labeled, is used to form a graph H with each vertex representing a different residue of the protein and assigned one or more amino types. Placements of H onto G are formed, each including mappings assigning vertices in H to vertices in G subject to the constraints that vertices in H mapped to vertices in G cannot be of different amino acid types and edges between pairs of vertices in H must map to corresponding edges in G. For each vertex in H, the number of different valid mappings to G is determined by polling the placements as a constraint satisfaction problem and is deemed assigned when only a single unique assignment is identified.

A method for preparing an NMR material, comprising generating parahydrogen in gas or liquid form at a first location; transporting the parahydrogen away from the first location; mixing a precursor compound including a metabolite component with a catalyst for hydrogenation; hydrogenating the precursor compound using the parahydrogen; transferring polarization in the precursor compound to a nuclear spin of the metabolite component; cleaving a side arm of the precursor compound in a chemical reaction, with the metabolite molecule being one of the products of the reaction; separating the metabolite molecule from the catalyst for hydrogenation and other products of the reaction; and generating metabolite molecules for use in an MRI scanner by extracting a sample of the metabolite molecule having at least 5% polarization.

This invention provides a NMR multi-dimensional method for measuring coupling constants within several coupling networks. At first, a 90 hard pulse was performed to flip the magnetization from the Z axis to the XY plane. After t.sub.1/2, a selective 180 pulse is implemented with a simultaneous Z-direction gradient, thus reversing different protons at different slices. Then the PSYCHE element is implemented. After another t.sub.1/2, the gradient G.sub.1 and G.sub.p are implemented. At last, the EPSI readout is used to simultaneously record both the chemical-shift and the spatial information. As a result, from different specific slices, we can extract the scalar couplings between the proton reversed at this slice and other protons. These couplings lead to splittings in the indirect dimension, from which relevant coupling constants can be measured.

An HF coil assembly for generating independent alternating magnetic fields in an examination volume of a magnetic resonance apparatus is presented, the HF coil assembly comprising a first coil pair of saddle coils and a second coil pair of saddle coils, each saddle coil having longitudinal conductor elements and curved conductor elements arranged along a common lateral surface of a circular cylinder having a cylinder axis. Each coil pair comprises curved conductor elements and longitudinal conductor elements which are interconnected at a high frequency. The saddle coils also have diagonal conductor elements and/or bridge elements that connect the longitudinal and curved conductor elements. The coil pairs are opposite to each other relative to the cylinder axis.

Disclosed are methods of characterizing kerogen and its hydrocarbon generation potential using NMR as the primary analytical tool, and using such data to derive the kinetics of hydrocarbon generation and alteration, thus predicting the hydrocarbon potential of source rock in geological setting, which can then be used in petroleum exploration and production.