# Development of a high-sensitivity 13C NMR probe for metabolomics

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA · 2020 · $317,240

## Abstract

Project Summary
Metabolites are sensitive to genetic and environmental factors, and as a result are good indicators of disease
or phenotype. The overall goal of metabolomics is the measurement of all metabolites associated with a
specific disease, treatment, genotype, etc. Combined with other `omics, metabolomics is becoming
indispensable in systems biology studies, precision medicine, food and agricultural industry, and cell-based
pharmaceuticals. The major difficulty in metabolomics is the reliable and reproducible identification and
quantification of metabolites. Analytical technologies such as NMR and LC-MS can provide hundreds to tens of
thousands of peaks from metabolomics samples, but efficiently quantifying these peaks and confidently
assigning them to real metabolites remains a significant challenge. The standard approach to NMR
metabolomics is to detect 1H, because it is both abundant and sensitive. The problem with 1H NMR is that
peaks are often overlapped, making reliable identification and quantification difficult. We have developed new
approaches to metabolomics using 13C detection by NMR, both at natural abundance and with isotopic
enrichment, to exploit the advantages of reduced peak overlap due to large spectral dispersion of 13C and
more robust database matching of chemical shifts to metabolites. The primary limitation of 13C-based NMR
metabolomics is sensitivity. We propose to develop a 5-mm 13C-optimized 800 MHz NMR probe made from
high-temperature superconductors (HTS) that will improve the sensitivity for metabolomics samples by at least
a factor of 3 beyond what is currently available. This sensitivity increase will reduce measurement times by at
least a factor of 9x or it will allow us to detect metabolites at 3-fold lower concentrations. These improvements
will be coupled with new acquisition methods using 2 NMR receivers and will be implemented on a new 800
MHz NMR spectrometer for enhanced sensitivity and throughput. Based on the target value for 13C signal-to-
noise of 9000:1 for the ASTM standard, we expect to be able to fully quantify and identify up to around 130
metabolites in a biofluid like human serum in about 2 hours. We are also developing methods to fractionate
and concentrate samples using HPLC and solid phase extraction (SPE), and this technology will allow us to
also measure mass spectrometry data on the same samples. We should be able to characterize over 300
metabolites with a 5x SPE concentration, or 450 metabolites with a 10x SPE. This project will greatly improve
the reproducibility, reliability, and biological information content of metabolomics. We will disseminate the
technology through commercialization or by making the drawings available to interested investigators.
Aim 1) Develop an 18.8 T 5-mm 13C-optimized HTS probe that will be installed on a Bruker Avance III HD
NMR spectrometer in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC) at the University of Georgia.
Aim 2) Develop new metabolomics a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9831166
- **Project number:** 5R01GM120151-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
- **Principal Investigator:** ARTHUR S EDISON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $317,240
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-12-05 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9831166

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9831166, Development of a high-sensitivity 13C NMR probe for metabolomics (5R01GM120151-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9831166. Licensed CC0.

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