Collision Cross Section Measurements Using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Techniques

杨百翰大学的大卫V. Dearden教授得到了化学系化学测量和成像（CMI）项目以及计算和数据支持科学与工程项目的支持，以开发一种技术来检测和表征大分子的形状，这种大分子通常存在于生命系统和分子大小的设备中。 目前只有使用高度专业化和昂贵的仪器才能获得这种信息。这种新方法只需要对商用仪器进行最低限度的廉价修改，从而使各种科学家都能进行这种测量。 这种技术在经济实惠的质谱仪上的可用性允许超分子组装的表征以及在诸如超分子化学和生物分子科学等领域中的肽折叠和蛋白质构象变化的研究。这些结果有望促进生物医学研究和分子尺寸器件的设计和制造，如分子开关和存储器存储架构。Dearden正在开发的方法的首字母缩写为CRAFTI，通过傅立叶变换离子回旋共振的横截面面积。 它用于通过测量超分子体系和大生物分子在气相中的碰撞截面来表征它们的形状。这些测量是通过在傅里叶变换离子回旋共振质谱仪（FTICR/MS）中监测离子与中性背景气体分子碰撞产生的信号来完成的。作为该项目的一部分，还在开发便于用户使用的CRAFTI数据分析软件，以促进将CRAFTI技术转让给更广泛的FTICR用户群体，并有可能转让给轨道阱质谱仪。在这项研究的过程中，研究生正在接受最先进的质谱和分析技术的培训。迪尔登正在招募有才华的本科生，并让他们参与研究，为未来的研究生学习做准备。这项工作的结果包括在年度报告中向公众介绍作为国家化学周的一部分。

Professor David V. Dearden of Brigham Young University is supported by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI) Program in the Division of Chemistry and the Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering Program to develop a technique to detect and characterize the shape of large molecules, commonly found in living systems and molecular-size devices. Such information is currently only available using highly specialized and expensive instruments. The new approach will require only minimal, inexpensive modifications of commercially-available instruments, thus making such measurements accessible to a wide array of scientists. The availability of this technique on affordable mass spectrometers is allowing the characterization of supramolecular assemblies and the study of peptide folding and protein conformational changes in fields such as supramolecular chemistry and biomolecular science. The results are expected to facilitate biomedical research and the design and manufacture of molecular-size devices, such as molecular switches and memory storage architectures.The method Dearden is developing is known by the acronym CRAFTI, cross sectional areas by Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance. It is used to characterize the shapes of supramolecular systems and large biomolecules through measurement of their collision cross sections in the gas phase. These measurements are accomplished by monitoring the signal due to the collisions of the ions with the molecules of a neutral background gas in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICR/MS). User-friendly software for CRAFTI data analysis is also being developed as part of this project, facilitating the transfer of the CRAFTI technology to the broader user community of FTICR and, potentially, to Orbitrap mass spectrometers. In the course of this research, graduate students are being trained in state-of-the-art mass spectrometric and analytical techniques. Dearden is recruiting talented undergraduate students and involving them in the research in preparation for future graduate studies. Results from this work are included in annual presentations to the general public as part of National Chemistry Week.