Biomedical Solid-State NMR

A bit belated, but this is my favorit impression from the IPS conference in Kyoto December 2018.

I took a morning off to visit the meserizing Nijō Castle in the heart of the city. There were basically no Westerners anywhere, and I was singled out by a school class for souvenir photos. I only hope they knew that they made my day, and I got this shot as reward ;-! Plus they gave me a couple of cool crane origamis that I brought home.

PS: In the back, you see the Imperial gate. The adornment of the gate used to be an important status symbol. I guess this one does the job!

Danique Ammerlaan, MSc student from Utrecht, joined our group for her Major Project for 1y. 

Welcome!

Koen's new paper in Angewandte has been selected as a Frontispiece

Way to go!!

Koen Visscher, a former Master student in our group, has just published an article on ion channel clusters,

Supramolecular organization and functional implications of K+ channel clusters in membranes, which was accepted in Angewandte Chemie.

We used a novel approach that combines dynamic nuclear polarizaiton-enhanced solid-state NMR experiments and large-scale computer simulations. With this approach, we were able to show that potassium channel clustering depends on the gating state of the channels. Our study demonstrates a link between potassium channel clustering and function, and uncovers a hitherto unknown mechanism of ion channel communication. 

This approach can be used to study membrane protein - membrane protein interactions in a broad context.

Way to go Koen!

We welcome Barend Elenbaas, who will stay with us for six months for his Master Project.

We welcome Felix Torres, a Master student, in our group!

Felix will stay with us for six months.