FROM SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND MODEL SYSTEMS TO MICROSTRUCTURE OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM: A LOOK FROM DIFFUSION NMR AND MRI

Pulsed-field gradient spin-echo (PGSE) NMR technique used for measuring diffusion with NMR is more than 50 years old and diffusion MRI is widely used to study the central nervous system (CNS). In the lecture few examples of the application of diffusion NMR in supramolecular chemistry will be presented, with special emphasize on hydrogen-bonded molecular capsules which, even more than a decade later, are the best examples to demonstrate the added value of diffusion NMR in elucidating the structure of supramolecular systems in solution. In confined space where diffusion is non-Gaussian, diffusion NMR may, in principle, be used for gleaning microstructural information. In the lecture the structural information and the diagnostic power of q-space diffusion MRI (QSI) will be presented briefly, followed by more recent applications of angular double PGSE NMR and MRI to obtain detailed microstructural information in model systems where the ground truth is known as well as in complex systems, neuronal tissues and animal CNS. If time will permit the development of new anti-biofilm agents from an attempt to prepare new xenon NMR biosensors will be described.