Biomedical EPR Part-B Methodology Instrumentation and Dynamics - Sandra R. Eaton







PREFACE

There has not been an attempt to cover the full scope of biological EPR in

a single volume since Biological Applications of Electron Spin Resonance

edited by Swartz, Bolton, and Borg in 1972. In three decades there have

been enormous changes in the field. Our original plan for one volume

expanded into two. A stimulus for an updated book at this time was the

birthday of James S. Hyde (May 20, 2002), one of the leaders in the

development of EPR instrumentation and methodology applied to biological

problems. To symbolically tie this book to Jim Hyde’s efforts, we choose

the title “Biomedical EPR”, which is the name of the NIH-funded National

Biomedical EPR Center founded by Harold Swartz and James Hyde at the

Medical College of Wisconsin in 1975. This Center has been funded

continuously since then, and has been a focal point of new developments and

applications in biomedical research. Many of the authors of chapters in this

book have been close associates of Jim Hyde, and several have been longterm

members of the Advisory Committee of the Center.



There is a long history underlying most of the topics in these books.

Some of this history was surveyed in Foundations of Modern EPR, edited by

Eaton, Eaton, and Salikhov (1998). It is helpful to keep in mind that

theoretical and experimental studies of spin relaxation preceded the

development of EPR and NMR. The early work of Waller and of Gorter, for

example, focused on spin relaxation (see Foundations of Modern EPR).

Long development periods, and indirect paths from initial concept to

biomedical application are the norm. Even new instrumentation or

methodology developments, with few exceptions, require of the order of 10

to 15 years from “invention” to general application. No one could have

predicted that the attempt to make a better measurement of the deuterium

magnetic moment would lead to functional magnetic resonance imaging

(fMRI), and if such a prediction had been made, it would have been

dismissed as ridiculous. Those who sponsor research, and nurture

researchers, enrich humanity by not demanding proof of relevance. We each

pursue goals that inspire us, and hope that they will be of benefit. This book

is part of a story as it unfolds.



Contributors were asked to make this book more “pedagogical” than

“review.” The goal is a multi-author introduction to biomedical EPR with

up-to-date examples, explanations, and applications, pointing toward the

future. Thus, the book is aimed not just at readers who are EPR experts, but

at biomedical researchers seeking to learn whether EPR technology and

methodology will be useful to solve their biomedical problems. The

derivation and explanation of the underlying theory and methodology for

many of the topics presented would require separate books. The authors

were asked to keep the background and theory to a minimum, referring

whenever possible to other texts and reviews to lead the reader to additional

information. The referencing in most chapters is thus to be tutorial and

helpful, rather than to be comprehensive or to reflect priority of discovery.

There is a focus on papers with a biological orientation. Thus, for example,

although the fact that oxygen in solution broadens CW EPR spectra has been

known since 1959 (see the chapter by Hauser and Brunner in Foundations of

Modern EPR ), the citations in the oxymetry chapter in this book to

biologically relevant literature about oxygen broadening start about twenty

years later. The perspective in each chapter is presented from the viewpoint

of people involved in cutting-edge research.







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