In this project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Warren S. Warren of Duke University will determine experimentally and understand theoretically the fundamental limits of singlet spin relaxation times in structured materials. This involves synthesis of optimized, next-generation magnetic resonance agents targeted to measure specific metabolic and enzymatic processes and clarify questions on molecular dynamics. The goal here is to use quantum mechanics to design molecules which can preserve hyperpolarization far longer than the few seconds available by traditional methods, thus broadening their utility. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity comes from the integration of seemingly disparate fields (decoherence reduction in quantum computing; chemical physics, synthetic organic chemistry, molecular biology) to address fundamental questions about spin dynamics. Broader impacts include the potential this work has to revolutionize materials imaging and in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
This work will dramatically improve the utility of newly developed methods which turn normally invisible molecules into nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) "light bulbs" and thus elucidate chemical dynamics. Professor Warren and his students will create compounds which act as "light bulbs" far longer than the seconds currently available, thus permitting studies of slower processes such as biochemical reactions. The long term impact in both fields could be profound; for example, almost all MRI scans are only of water, and this could permit scans using molecules that detect specific disease pathways.
