Rapid Parallel Magnetic Resonance Relaxometry on Multiwell Plates with a Benchtop Scanner

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Analytical Chemistry
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry offers valuable applications in medicine, biology, and chemistry.
• Current relaxometry methods are often slow, destructive, and require large sample volumes.
• These limitations hinder applications like drug screening and cell culture development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate a low-cost, benchtop system for rapid, non-destructive NMR relaxometry.
• To enable parallel measurements on multiple samples simultaneously.
• To overcome the limitations of traditional relaxometry workflows.

Main Methods:

• A novel low-cost benchtop NMR relaxometry system was designed and built.
• The system performs measurements on 16 wells of a 96-well plate in a single run.
• No sample preparation is required, allowing for non-destructive analysis.

Main Results:

• The system enables rapid, non-destructive scanning of multiple samples.
• Demonstrated parallel measurement capabilities for applications like iron measurement.
• Successfully performed relaxometry on multiple groups without sample preparation.

Conclusions:

• The developed multiwell NMR relaxometry system significantly improves workflow efficiency.
• This technology facilitates broader applications of relaxometry in drug screening and cell culture.
• The system offers a cost-effective and rapid solution for parallel relaxometry measurements.