The proposed research focuses on the value of investigating biological macromolecules in a state which more closely corresponds to a subcellular environment, the liquid crystal phase. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is the principal technique. The anisotropic tumbling of probe molecules (small solutes), the solvent molecules (in collagen, the water of hydration), and flexible fragments of the macromolecules (polypeptde side chains), give rise to additional hyperfine structure in the NMR spectra which can be analyzed to obtain structural and dynamical information. Deuterium NMR will be emphasized in the liquid crystalline phases of macromolecules, a state of aggregation which more closely resembles the in vivo environment.