Slice & Dice: nested spin-lattice relaxation measurements.

Spin-lattice relaxation rate ( R 1 ) measurements are commonly used to characterize protein dynamics. However, the time needed to collect the data can be quite long due to long relaxation times of the low-gamma nuclei, especially in the solid state. We present a method to collect backbone heavy atom relaxation data by nesting the collection of datasets in the solid state. This method results in a factor of 2 to 2.5 times faster data acquisition for backbone R 1 relaxation data for the 13 C and 15 N sites of proteins.