Category Archives: Our Publications

These are the scientific articles published by SeRMN personnel. Posts may contain a short description of the research work objective and relevance, in addition to the abstract of the article, the bibliographic reference, and the article DOI if available.

Ex vivo method to evaluate MRI contrast agents

“A 2014_coverJnanobiotechnologynew ex vivo method to evaluate the performance of candidate MRI contrast agents: a proof-of-concept study” by Candiota A.P., Acosta M., Simões R.V., Delgado-Goñi T., Lope-Piedrafita S., Irure A., Marradi M., Bomatí-Miguel O., Miguel-Sancho N., Abasolo I., Schwartz S. Jr., Santamaría J., Penadés S., Arús C. J Nanobiotechnology 2014 12:12. DOI: 10.1186/1477-3155-12-12.

A new method has been developed for selecting MRI contrast agents with better expected in vivo performance. This method requires only a very small amount of contrast agent (e.g. 5 nmols/animal, 800 times less than the quantity necessary for in vivo administration) and allows to carry out a more rationally informed candidate selection, avoiding unnecessary in vivo and toxicology tests for the ex vivo poorly performing substances, consequently reducing animal needs, material consumption and overall costs. Continue reading Ex vivo method to evaluate MRI contrast agents

Opposite metabolic responses of shoots and roots to drought

scireports Opposite metabolic responses of shoots and roots to drought by Albert Gargallo-Garriga, Jordi Sardans, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo, Albert Rivas-Ubach, Michal Oravec, Teodor Parella and Josep Peñuelas. Scientific reports 4, Article number: 6829, October 2014. DOI: 10.1038/srep06829

Shoots and roots are autotrophic and heterotrophic organs of plants with different physiological functions. Do they have different metabolomes? Do their metabolisms respond differently to environmental changes such as drought? We used metabolomics and elemental analyses to answer these questions. Continue reading Opposite metabolic responses of shoots and roots to drought

Diversity of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in native and invasive Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae): Implications for toxicity

14Phytochemistry“Diversity of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in native and invasive Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae): Implications for toxicity” by Eva Castells, Patrick P.J. Mulder  and Miriam Perez-Trujillo. Phytochemistry (2014) 108:137-146. DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2014.09.006

Changes in plant chemical defenses after invasion could have consequences on the invaded ecosystems by modifying the interactions between plants and herbivores and facilitating invasion success. However, no comprehensive biogeographical studies have yet determined the phenotypic levels of plant chemical defenses, as consumed by local herbivores, covering large distributional areas of a species. Continue reading Diversity of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in native and invasive Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae): Implications for toxicity

Perfect-HSQC experiments: pure in-phase spectra

cover“Suppresión of phase and amplitude JHH modulations in HSQC experiments” by Laura Castañar, Eduard Sistaré, Albert Virgili, Robert Thomas Williamson and Teodor Parella. Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2014 , 53:115-119. DOI: 10.1002/mrc.4149

The amplitude and the phase of cross peaks in conventional 2D HSQC experiments are modulated by both proton–proton, JHH, and proton–carbon, 1JCH, coupling constants. It is shown by spectral simulation and experimentally that JHH interferences are suppressed in a novel perfect-HSQC pulse scheme that incorporates perfect-echo INEPT periods. Continue reading Perfect-HSQC experiments: pure in-phase spectra

SeRMN presentations at the SMASH NMR 2014 Conference

Some of our last research works will be presented at the annual meeting of the Small Molecule NMR Conference (SMASH) that will take place in Atlanta (USA) from 7th to 10th September 2014.

Continue reading SeRMN presentations at the SMASH NMR 2014 Conference

Simultaneous 1H and 13C NMR enantiodifferentiation from highly-resolved pure shift HSQC spectra

CoverIssue“Simultaneous 1H and 13C NMR enantiodifferentiation from highly-resolved pure shift HSQC spectra” by Miriam Pérez-Trujillo, Laura Castañar, Eva Monteagudo, Lars T. Kuhn, Pau Nolis, Albert Virgili, R. Thomas Williamson and Teodor Parella. Chemical Communications  50:10214-10217 (2014). DOI: 10.1039/C4CC04077E

NMR-aided discrimination of enantiomers using chiral solvating agents (CSAs) is a well established method of enantiodifferentiation and measurement of enantiomeric ratios (er). The analysis is traditionally performed by observing chemical shift differences (ΔΔδ) in 1H signals by conventional 1D 1H NMR spectra. However, low ΔΔδ values and signal overlap caused by complex multiplets lead to the lack of spectral signal dispersion that preclude a straightforward analysis. Continue reading Simultaneous 1H and 13C NMR enantiodifferentiation from highly-resolved pure shift HSQC spectra

Pure In-Phase Heteronuclear Correlation NMR Experiments

“Pure Incover-Phase Heteronuclear Correlation NMR Experiments ” by Laura Castañar, Josep Sauri, Robert Thomas Williamson, Albert Virgili and Teodor Parella. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 8379-8382. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201404136

A general NMR approach to provide pure in-phase (PIP) multiplets in heteronuclear correlation experiments is described. The implementation of a z-filter efficiently suppresses any unwanted anti-phase contributions that usually distort the multiplet pattern of cross-peaks and can make their analysis difficult. Continue reading Pure In-Phase Heteronuclear Correlation NMR Experiments

HOBS experiments to measure T1/T2 relaxation times in overlapped regions

S10907807“Measurement of T1/T2 relaxation times in overlapped regions from homodecoupled 1H singlet signals” by Laura Castañar, Pau Nolis, Albert Virgili and Teodor Parella. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 244 (2014) 30-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2014.04.003

The implementation of the HOmodecoupled Band-Selective (HOBS) technique in the conventional Inversion-Recovery and CPMG-based PROJECT experiments is described. The achievement of fully homodecoupled signals allows the distinction of overlapped 1H resonances with small chemical shift differences. It is shown that the corresponding T1 and T2 relaxation times can be individually measured from the resulting singlet lines using conventional exponential curve-fitting methods. Continue reading HOBS experiments to measure T1/T2 relaxation times in overlapped regions

Rapid and efficient enantiodifferentiation through frequency-selective pure-shift 1H NMR spectroscopy

cover“Enantiodifferentiation through Frequency-Selective Pure-Shift 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy” by Laura Castañar, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo, Pau Nolis, Eva Monteagudo, Albert Virgili and Teodor Parella. ChemPhysChem,15 (2014) 854-857.

DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201301130

A frequency-selective 1D 1H NMR experiment for the fast and sensitive determination of  chemical shift differences between overlapped resonances is proposed. The resulting fully homodecoupled 1H resonances appear as resolved 1D singlets without their typical JHH multiplet structure. The achieved high signal dispersion is here exploited in  enantiodiscrimination studies using chiral solvating agents. Continue reading Rapid and efficient enantiodifferentiation through frequency-selective pure-shift 1H NMR spectroscopy

Confining light metal hydrides in micro- or mesoporous scaffolds

JournalMaterialResearch“Unusual Oxidation Behavior of Light Metal Hydride by Tetrahydrofurane Solvent Molecules Confined in Ordered
Mesoporous Carbon” Klose, M.; Lindemann, I.; Minella, C.; Pinkert, K.; Zier, M.; Giebeler, L.; Nolis, P.; Baro, M.; Oswald, S.; Gutfleisch, O.; Ehrenberg, H.; Eckert, J. Journal Of Materials Research, 2014, 29, 55-63 DOI:10.1557/jmr.2013.199

Confining light metal hydrides in micro- or mesoporous scaffolds is considered to be a promising way to overcome the existing challenges for these materials, e.g. their application in hydrogen storage. Different techniques exist which allow us to homogeneously fill pores of a host matrix with the respective hydride, thus yielding well defined composite materials. Continue reading Confining light metal hydrides in micro- or mesoporous scaffolds