Project-based LC-MS Experiments at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology

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Chemistry (12) The purchase of a micro API MS-MS mass analyzer is allowing coupled liquid chromatography-mass spectra (LC-MS) analysis to be introduced into the undergraduate curriculum via multi-week team based, project-oriented experiments in organic chemistry, biochemistry and environmental science laboratories. The inclusion of LC-MS in the undergraduate curriculum is very limited at this time; the few examples of undergraduates using the technique have largely been restricted to research settings. The experiments for use in the laboratories are being adapted from the research literature and variability is built into them such that the experiments will not devolve into "cookbook" type ones. Working in the area of pharmaceutical science, teams of students taking organic chemistry laboratory utilize parallel synthesis strategies to develop small libraries of lidocaine analogues, confirming their reaction products by LC-MS. These libraries are then incubated with liver microsomes and the rates of metabolism of these compounds analyzed by LC-MS-MS. In the area of environmental science, students taking quantitative analysis determine how the aerobic and anaerobic digestion methods used in wastewater treatment plants affect the levels of alkylphenol endocrine disrupters that are produced by microbial degradation of detergents. Students taking senior-level biochemistry laboratory are working in the emerging area of metabolomics, which seeks to examine the entire set (or a defined subset) of cellular metabolites. The biochemistry students use LC-MS to identify and quantify lipids involved in cellular signaling events. These new experiments are enhancing the laboratory experience by asking students to address challenging, relevant questions while giving them the cutting-edge instruments needed to answer those questions.