  Following the 12 GeV upgrade, a dedicated experiment is planned with the Hall
B CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab, with the aim to study electroproduction of
nucleon resonances at high photon virtualities up to $Q^2 = 12$ GeV$^2$. In
this work we present a QCD-based approach to the theoretical interpretation of
these upcoming results in the framework of light-cone sum rules that combine
perturbative calculations with dispersion relations and duality. The form
factors are thus expressed in terms of $N^\ast(1535)$ light-front wave
functions at small transverse separations, called distribution amplitudes. The
distribution amplitudes can therefore be determined from the comparison with
the experimental data on form factors and compared to the results of lattice
QCD simulations. The results of the corresponding next-to-leading order
calculation are presented and compared with the existing data. We find that the
form factors are dominated by the twist-four distribution amplitudes that are
related to the $P$-wave three-quark wave functions of the $N^\ast(1535)$, i.e.
to contributions of orbital angular momentum.
