Many of the major NMR-active nuclei of the elements abundant in biology are quadrupolar. A fundamental problem in interpreting the NMR spectra of these nuclei from tissue is that usually a portion of the signal is not detected in routine single quantum spectral acquisitions; this is the so-called "NMR-invisibility". Dr. Springer plans to use some modern 2D NMR spectral technique to attack this problem. This application of 2D NMR techniques to such high-spin nuclei is new. A number of preliminary experiments have been conducted on model systems and tissue samples and the results are encouraging. The preliminary experiments presented in this proposal describe the NMR behavior of the quadrupolar ions in different model systems, and suggest that the techniques being developed will have broad applicability for the study of biological systems.***
