Saturday, October 24th: 1 – 4 pm

Presented by Dr. Christopher G. Williams (Biomolecular NMR Facility Manager, ISU)

Christopher Williams received his PhD under Prof. Leonard Mueller at the University of California, Riverside in 2025 and currently serves as the Biomolecular NMR Facility Manager at Iowa State University. His experience and interests focus on biomolecular NMR, with particular emphasis on NMR crystallography, which integrates solid-state NMR, first-principles computational chemistry, and crystallography to investigate enzyme active sites. His work highlights how NMR contributes to a broader framework for constructing and quantitatively testing chemically detailed models of structure, as well as chemical and conformational dynamics

• 1:00 – 2:00 pm: Introduction to solid-state NMR strategies for investigating enzyme active sites (Lecture hall Molecular Biology Building Room 1414)

Dr. Williams will present an overview of solid-state NMR approaches for probing enzyme active sites, highlighting how NMR data can be integrated with crystallographic structures and first-principles calculations to provide detailed mechanistic insight.

• 2:00 – 4:00 pm : Hands-on session (Biological NMR Facility Molecular Biology Building Room 0208)

The hands-on component will introduce participants to practical aspects of solid-state NMR experiments, including sample and rotor handling, key considerations in MAS experiment setup, and guided analysis of representative datasets relevant to enzyme active-site studies.