Must Have for Protein NMR Spectroscopists

People who start they adventure with the protein NMR spectroscopy should learn from the old Wuthrich’s book first, which was published in 1986. Beginner should not start his adventure with the protein NMR spectroscopy from working with the multidimentional spectra only. In my opinion man should properly understand 2D NMR spectroscopy of different biomolecules first.

This book is one of the best NMR texts I have read. That being said, it is also one of the most challenging NMR texts I have read (it’s a tie between this and Intro to SSNMR by Melinda Duer). This book is definitely not a beginners book, so if you are just starting to learn about NMR buy something more basic like Spin Dynamics by Levitt or Understanding NMR analyzer by Keeler and read it first. I have yet to find a protein NMR text out there as good as this one. The detail in which Dr. Palmer goes into is fantastic while still being very understandable. More than anything I appreciate the depth in which he covers the different experiment types. This is a must have for anyone doing protein NMR work.

It covers advanced ideas. The book authors are alphabetical, and anyone in the field refers to it as the Palmer book…He sacrificed his research as an asst. prof to write such a great book. Great discussion of Bloch and how T1 and T2 were originally proposed. I recommend this book along side the Malcom Levitt book (Spin Dynamics). The amazon copy of this book has different paper than other copies in my lab. It is thicker and heavier, but better for writing on or annotating. Other copies in the lab with the older paper have a hard time writing on it. The binding is real crappy, I left it in the lab with that huge orgo encyclopedia sitting on the first 20 pages so it would stay open. I would have really appreciated a paperback version, but they don’t make one. Note there is significant differences between the first and second editions, don’t cheap out you will be sorry. Get this one.

This is the new standard for Protein NMR spectroscopists (the old one being Ernst). Everyone I’ve met who uses NMR application in biology has nothing but praise for this book. It’s not a perfect book and has some weakness, especially in the modelling portions. The math derivations are clear but the authors do not connect back to the physical phenomenon. I would recommend keeping a QM book nearby as a reference. However, this book is well written overall and very complete.

Important new techniques and applications of NMR spectroscopy have emerged since the first edition of this extremely successful book was published in 1996. The second edition includes new sections describing measurement and use of residual dipolar coupling constants for structure determination, TROSY and deuterium labeling for application to large macromolecules, and experimental techniques for characterizing conformational dynamics. In addition, the treatments of instrumentation and signal acquisition, field gradients, multidimensional spectroscopy, and structure calculation are updated and enhanced.