Hyperpolarization ventures 2025/2026

As anyone who has learned anything about NMR will tell you, the one thing we all hear is that "NMR is not sensitive." That's because the Boltzmann distribution of nuclear spins between energetic states is extremely small — out of every thirty thousand spins, only one is in excess and actually contributes to the signal we measure. That feels like nothing compared to more sensitive techniques like UV-Vis (about a thousand times more sensitive), fluorescence (roughly a million times more sensitive), or mass spectrometry, which can reach up to a billion times higher sensitivity, detecting femtomolar concentrations in specialized cases. And yet, thanks to its versatile ability to analyze almost any kind of molecule, NMR is used everywhere - from inorganic chemistry, through organic chemistry, to biomolecules and materials. One can elucidate structures, see spatial arrangements, dynamics, molecular exchange, and more. And yet, sometimes the only thing one can say is "we couldn't get enough signal." We've said that ourselves more times than we'd like to admit. Which is why our team has progressively been turning toward hyperpolarization, an umbrella term for techniques that increase the Boltzmann population difference between spin states, resulting in more signal.

Kersten, who started exploring hyperpolarization first, went with DNP - dynamic nuclear polarization, which, to describe in one sentence, is a mix of EPR and NMR at extremely low temperatures. Justyna went with photo-CIDNP - photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization, a slightly milder approach to signal enhancement that can best be described as "NMR with lasers."

In spring 2026, Kersten had the opportunity to perform DNP-enhanced MAS NMR measurements. He visited the group of Prof. Björn Corzilius at the University of Rostock to carry out experiments on his polymer micelles, benefiting from the group’s specialized equipment and expertise for detecting very small amounts of drugs within the polymer carriers.

In addition, he was able to send samples to the Swedish NMR Centre at the University of Gothenburg, where a specialized triple-channel DNP probe was available for ¹⁹F NMR measurements. Thanks to remote spectrometer access, the experiments could be performed conveniently from afar while taking advantage of the enhanced sensitivity provided by DNP for the analysis of fluorine-containing materials.

For her measurements, Justyna travelled to the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland, in November 2025 and again in May 2026, measuring photo-CIDNP in the lab of Prof. Sebastian Hiller. She looked at patterns of signal enhancement in solutions of compounds encapsulated within the micelles. Since photo-CIDNP in polymeric micelles is a fairly uncharted territory, it was exciting to confirm that not only can the effect be measured in polymeric media, but structural information can also be gained from the polarization buildup itself. After exploring different materials and identifying the best conditions for photo-CIDNP to work, she will move on to screening different molecules with this technique and trying out more complex NMR pulse sequences with the laser added in.

To make life a little more interesting, in January 2026 Justyna also attended a pulsed DNP training at the Very High Field NMR Center in Lyon, to learn and get hands-on experience with a recently flourishing method in DNP. The training was organized by the group of Prof. Sami Jannin, with seminars from excellent specialists in NMR and EPR.

Overall, we're deep into exploring signal enhancement in NMR, and we're looking forward to seeing what else hyperpolarization can do for us.