Acquisition of a High-Throughput Proteomics Robotic Workstation for the Cornell University Bioresource Center

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A grant has been awarded to Cornell University to acquire a high-throughput robotics platform which will perform two-dimensional protein electrophoresis (2DE) gel spot picking, spot digestion, digest clean-up and spotting to matrix assisted laser-desorption ionization target plates (MALDI) for mass spectrometry (MS). This robotics platform will be housed in and managed by the Cornell University Biotechnology Resource Center (BRC) and it will be accessible by any investigator at Cornell or at any other institution. The Cornell BRC is a shared-use and fee-for-service facility encompassing nine core services and generating $1.5 million in income during FY 2000/2001. The robotic workstation will enhance the capabilities of the core facility by providing a state-of-the-art instrument which will automatically perform many of the laborious steps required in proteomics experiments. Although the definition can be interpreted broadly, 'proteomics', in this case, refers to the ability to measure changes in the protein expression of a given biological system with the goal of relating such changes to various disease states, metabolic states or other features of biological interest. The acquisition of this instrument will have a positive impact on the research programs of many of the investigators at Cornell and at any other institution interested in using this resource.In the field of proteomics, proteins are collected from biological samples of interest with the goal of identifying changes in protein expression that may be interesting. For example, proteins may be collected from various tissue sources with the goal of identifying changes that relate to the presence or absence of a particular disease. After collection, the proteins are often separated into a unique fingerprint of protein expression that serves as a barcode for that particular sample. These fingerprints or barcodes of protein expression can be compared with the goal of identifying changes in this pattern. Once proteins of interest are identified within this barcode, the proteins must be excised from their polymer matrix, digested with chemicals and placed onto metal plates which can be placed inside separate instruments for analysis. These steps of excision, digest and spotting to metal plates is very laborious and the high-throughput proteomics robotic workstation will be able to perform all of these steps automatically.Cornell University is uniquely positioned to benefit from an integrated proteomics robotics platform because of the relatively large number of established laboratories and investigators that are committed to proteomics. This commitment is reflected by the newly established Cornell Proteomics Program which is a faculty-led, University-wide Program. The CPP currently includes eleven core faculty from eight different units at Cornell spanning a number of different Departments, Colleges and Research Facilities. The acquisition of this instrument will have an important impact on several specific federally-funded research projects (NSF, NIH, USDA) which are being run by Proteomics Program faculty. Many of these projects involve graduate student research assistants that are female or from other underrepresented minorities. Further, many of these graduate student research assistants are funded through NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Further, this instrument may be used in laboratory teaching activities.