An ERC Consolidator Grant worth around 2 million euros has been awarded to the University of Vienna: chemist Dennis Kurzbach has received the prestigious grant for his research. This brings the total number of ERC grants awarded to the University of Vienna to 158. The European Research Council (ERC) programme enables pioneering basic research with high innovation potential.
Enabling new experiments with improved Tools
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is one of the most important tools chemists and biologists use to see molecules 'in action'. However, its weakness is its sensitivity: many crucial processes in cells and materials remain invisible because the signals are simply too weak to be detected. The ERC-funded project HypSurf (Hyperpolarized Surface-enhanced Liquid-State Spectroscopy) aims to change this by increasing NMR sensitivity by up to a factor of 10,000 – while also improving spectral resolution.
HypSurf is based on dissolution dynamic nuclear polarisation (dDNP), a technique in which the NMR signal is strongly hyperpolarised before it enters the NMR spectrometer. In this project, 'hyperpolarised water' becomes a universal carrier of signal intensity: molecules only need to be water-soluble to benefit. This is made possible by three key innovations: Autonomous Interface Devices (AID), which make almost any NMR spectrometer upgradeable with dDNP capabilities; a new hyperpolarisation mechanism that transfers the amplified signal to the molecular surface; and LiSENS, an AI-assisted approach to recording and refining super-resolution NMR spectra.
With this toolkit, HypSurf will enable experiments that are currently impossible – for example, on large protein-DNA complexes that are relevant for gene regulation, on biomolecular condensates that are involved in cell organisation, or on early precursor clusters that determine how biomimetic materials are formed. The long-term vision is to transform hyperpolarised NMR from a niche technology used in a few specialised laboratories into a widely accessible platform method for chemistry, biology and materials science.
The five-year project is led by a team with expertise in NMR methods, DNP instrumentation, AI-assisted data analysis and biomolecular chemistry – putting it in a unique position to make HypSurf a new standard in molecular spectroscopy.
About Dennis Kurzbach
Dennis Kurzbach is an associate professor of biological chemistry at the University of Vienna and deputy head of the NMR Core Facility at the Faculty of Chemistry. 00After completing a double degree in chemistry and philosophy in Mainz, he earned his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, where he developed novel spectroscopic methods for soft materials. Postdoctoral positions then took him to the Max Perutz Labs in Vienna and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he completed his habilitation on hyperpolarisation methods.
In 2019, with the help of an ERC Starting Grant, he founded his own research group in Vienna and was appointed associate professor in 2020 in a fast-track procedure. His work combines state-of-the-art NMR and DNP spectroscopy.
Kurzbach has published more than 60 scientific papers, most of which have appeared in high-ranking journals such as Science Advances, J. Am. Chem. Soc. and Angewandte Chemie. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to molecular spectroscopy, including the Ignaz L. Lieben Prize from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society and a Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation.