IDBR: High Energy Collisional Activation in an FTICR for the Study of Large Biomolecules

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Most proteins do not exist by themselves in living systems but interact with other proteins in assemblies much as do members of a family. Mass spectrometry is becoming an important approach for investigating large protein assemblies in the gas phase. The goal of the research is to assemble and evaluate instrumentation for investigating macromolecular assemblies of proteins, to identify what proteins and how many constitute an assembly, to learn how they interface one to another, to discover what regions are free and what regions are part of the interface, and in the gas phase. The instrument is a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer, and it will be built around a presently existing 7-tesla superconducting magnet. Once the instrument is built, protein assemblies will be introduced via a very gentle process called native electrospray ionization, and their masses measured with the highest performance instrument type that is available in mass spectrometry. Energy will then be added to the complex by high energy collisions to reveal the organization and interfaces of the assemblies. Results will be published in the scientific literature in widely disseminated journals and posted as abstracts and reports on a web site: http://msr.dom.wustl.edu/.