Researchers used solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (SSNMR) to study the structure of a protein. The protein studied was a sensory rhodopsin protein found in the membrane of Anabaena bacteria. They were able to determine the fine details of the seven-helical architecture of the protein. They showed that using SSNMR to characterize a membrane protein in the lipid environment could reveal structures that are non-detectable or distorted by using an X-ray technique.