Uniform water-mediated saturation transfer: A sensitivity-improved alternative to WaterLOGSY

•Water in long-lived association with macromolecules is a remarkable source of magnetization to reveal ligand-target binding.•Saturation of water complemented with adiabatic off-resonance spin-locks removes the NOE contribution of bulk water.•Possible false positive signals from over-saturation of protons resonating close to the water signal are avoided.•The proposed methodology leads to ca. three-fold sensitivity enhancement over standard waterLOGSY.