IDBR: Development of an Electrostatic Ion Trap Tandem Mass Spectrometer

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This award supports a new approach to tandem mass spectrometry based upon the emerging technology of electrostatic ion traps and use of electron capture (EC) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation for dissociation. This is expected to afford key advantages in many important biological applications over existing tandem mass spectrometers. Electron capture dissociation, which has been shown to preserve many labile post-translational protein modifications, has recently emerged as an alternative to commonly used collisional fragmentation methods. However, its use is currently restricted to costly Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers owing to incompatibility with conventional RF ion traps. With the advent of simple electrostatic ion traps recently reported, there is a new opportunity for using less harsh fragmentation such as that provided by EC or VUV, as a basis for tandem mass spectrometry. The result will be a device that is simple and relatively inexpensive to construct and at the same time amenable to incorporation of both electron capture and laser generated ultraviolet radiation to fragment large biomolecules. The inherently interdisciplinary nature of this work will promote training of scientists ideally equipped to address the challenges facing the chemical and biological sciences in the coming decades. For the post-doc and graduate students directly involved, it will simultaneously give them deep expertise in the development of state-of-the art mass spectrometry hardware, steep them in the practical issues in ion chemistry and fragmentation mechanisms, and expose them to the essentials of protein purification, sequencing and sample preparation. For the undergraduates, it will provide invaluable hands-on experience in design, construction, and demonstration of a new approach to tandem mass spectrometry. Wayne State University, with the largest African-American population of any nonhistorically Black university, has a number of outreach programs to enlist underrepresented minorities in science education and training. The present proposal provides an excellent opportunity to take advantage of these programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as in outreach to the Detroit community.