MRI: Acquisition of a Liquid Chromatograph-Tandem Quadrupole-Orbitrap Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometer for High-Throughput Biological Analyses

美国田纳西大学（UT）获得了一台Dionex UltiMate 3000液相色谱仪-Q Exactive Plus串联四极轨道傅立叶变换质谱仪（LC Q Exactive），该仪器将成为该机构生物和小分子质谱核心（BSMMSC）的核心仪器，提供最先进的代谢组学和脂质组学支持。该工具将对机构和核心的培训和外联能力产生广泛的影响，LC-Q Exactive的收购将通过提供新的能力和基础设施加强组织内部和组织间的合作。此外，该仪器还将对德克萨斯大学的教学任务产生影响，因为它将用于培养多样化的博士后、研究生和本科生研究人员。在本科阶段，对代谢组学和生物质谱等新兴领域有价值的研究的介绍不仅可以通过独立的研究课程完成，还可以通过暑期本科课程和课堂练习完成。该仪器将用于加强德克萨斯大学诺克斯维尔分校微生物系和化学系的两个NSF本科生研究经验（REU）项目；PI和Co- PI也在努力开发一门新的联合上市的营养和化学课程，该课程将使用LC-Q Exactive。在研究生阶段，该仪器将用于研究，使用者将接受关于实验设计和执行的所有方面的培训。此外，LC-Q Exactive将用于化学、营养、生物化学和细胞与分子生物学系的研究生课程，以加强这些课程的教学。PI和联合PI将提供这些资源，以帮助扩大STEM学科的参与，并将与特拉维斯格里芬先生和国家科学基金会资助的田纳西州路易斯斯托克斯少数民族参与协会（TLSAMP）项目合作，以确定来自代表性不足群体的本科生参与者，并与佛罗里达国际大学的劳里理查森博士（该机构约75%的学生来自代表性不足群体）合作，以吸引这两个本科生还有研究生。系统生物学技术是生物研究和发现的重要驱动力，这些工具分为三大类：基因组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学。系统生物学层次旨在分别测量基因和RNA转录物、蛋白质含量和代谢活性。虽然基因组学和蛋白质组学平台已经建立，但代谢组学和（在某种程度上是脂质组学）平台的开发仍处于起步阶段。德克萨斯大学需要重要的系统生物学基础设施，以确保将转录物、蛋白质和代谢物的大规模测量整合在一起，以开发细胞、组织和有机体功能的整体模型的方法可供大学社区和该地区的其他人使用。LC-Q Exactive系统将允许开发代谢组学和脂质组学的新技术，并将为BSMMSC提供基本的靶向蛋白质组学能力，这将加强生物分析科学的可用资源和该地区的先进能力。德州大学诺克斯维尔校区内或附近的许多研究人员将受益于这些测量代谢物、脂质和蛋白质的能力，这些能力可以应用于所有生命王国的研究。该仪器将使广泛的科学领域的研究成为可能，包括但不限于海洋环境科学、土壤微生物学、真核和原核生物化学、计算机科学和分析化学。

An award is made to the University of Tennessee (UT) to acquire a Dionex UltiMate 3000 liquid chromatograph-Q Exactive Plus tandem quadrupole-Orbitrap Fourier transform mass spectrometer (LC Q Exactive), which will be the center piece instrument of the institution's Biological and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Core (BSMMSC) that provides state-of-the-art metabolomics and lipidomics support. This instrument will have broad impacts for the training and outreach capabilities or the institution and core, and acquisition of the LC-Q Exactive will strengthen both intra- and inter-organizational collaborations by providing new capabilities and infrastructure. Further, this instrument will also have impacts for UT's teaching mission as it will be used to train a diverse pool of post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate researchers. At the undergraduate level, introduction to meritorious research in the emerging fields of metabolomics and biological mass spectrometry will not only be accomplished through independent research courses but also through summer undergraduate programs and classroom exercises. The instrument will be made available to enhance two NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs in the departments of Microbiology and Chemistry at UT Knoxville; and the PI and Co- PIs are also working to develop a new co-listed Nutrition and Chemistry course that will utilize the LC-Q Exactive. At the graduate level, the instrument will be made available for research, and users will receive training on all aspects of experimental design and execution. Further, the LC-Q Exactive will be made available to graduate courses given by the Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology departments to enhance instruction in these classes. The PI and Co-PIs will make these resources available to help broaden participation in the STEM disciplines and will collaborate with Mr. Travis Griffin and the NSF Funded Tennessee Louis Stokes Association for Minority Participation (TLSAMP) program to identify undergraduate student participants from underrepresented groups and with Dr. Laurie Richardson at Florida International University (~75% of students from this institution are from underrepresented groups.) to engage both undergraduate and graduate students.Systems Biology technologies are important drivers for biological investigation and discovery,and these tools fall into three broad categories: genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. The systems biology hierarchy aims to measure genes and RNA transcripts, protein content, and metabolic activity, respectively. While genomics and proteomics platforms are well established, metabolomics and (and to some extent lipidomics) platform development is still in its infancy. Significant infrastructure for systems biology is needed at UT to ensure that approaches which integrate large scale measures of transcripts, proteins and metabolites to develop holistic models of cellular, tissue and organismal function are available to the University community and others in the region. The LC-Q Exactive system will allow the development of novel techniques for discovery metabolomics and lipidomics and will provide the BSMMSC with basic targeted proteomics capabilities that will bolster available resources for bioanalytical science and advance capabilities in the region. A number of researchers within or near the UT Knoxville campus will benefit from these capabilities to measure metabolites, lipids, and proteins that can be applied to the study of all kingdoms of life. This instrument will enable research in a broad range of scientific fields ranging including, but not limited to, marine environmental science, soil microbiology, eukaryotic and prokaryotic biochemistry, computer science, and analytical chemistry.