MRI: Track 1: Acquisition of a MALDI-TOF-TOF Mass Spectrometer with TOF/TOF Capabilities

该奖项由主要研究仪器计划、化学研究仪器计划、化学中的大分子、超分子和纳米化学（MSN）计划以及刺激竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项将支持新奥尔良地区的几所大学，包括杜兰大学、迪拉德大学和洛约拉大学。获得的基质辅助激光解吸/电离飞行时间质谱仪（MALDI-ToF MS）将被化学、化学工程和物理部门的研究人员使用。MALDI-ToF质谱是表征大分子（分子量大于500）的主要工具之一，包括肽、蛋白质、核酸、碳水化合物和聚合物。新仪器将具有高分辨率和串联质谱能力。该仪器将加强新奥尔良的质谱社区，并确保参与机构的本科生和研究生能够使用最先进的质谱仪器。此外，高中生（其中80%是非裔美国人）将学习聚合物以及MALDI-ToF MS如何确定分子量和重复单元。MALDI-ToF质谱的收购将增强现有的质谱能力，并使杜兰大学、迪拉德大学和洛约拉大学目前无法进行的新研究成为可能。这些新的能力将阐明各种大分子的结构和分子量的相互作用。例如，在阿尔茨海默病患者中发现的十六肽的降解可以通过不稳定氨基酸的排列来研究。DNA的拓扑转变也将在细菌中使用回转酶变体进行研究。许多这些回转酶变体具有较高的（脯氨酸）或较低的（甘氨酸）柔韧性，这将有助于确定这些化合物的高分子量降解产物。二（羟甲基）丙酸的聚合物结构（纯线性、纯枝状或随机超支化）也将被研究。新的仪器还将用于表征聚乙二醇聚合物的端基。新仪器可以很容易地完成许多质谱分析，包括DNA、空腔体、无机络合物等，如果没有这种仪器，这些分析将很难或不可能完成。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is jointly funded by the Major Research Instrumentation Program, the Chemistry Research Instrumentation Program, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) program in Chemistry, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award will support several universities within the New Orleans area, including Tulane, Dillard, and Loyola. The acquisition of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-ToF MS) will be used by researchers in the departments of chemistry, chemical engineering, and physics. MALDI-ToF MS is one of the main tools for the characterization of large molecules (having a molecular weight of greater than 500) including peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and polymers. The new instrument will have high resolution and tandem MS capabilities. This instrument will strengthen the mass spectrometry community within New Orleans and ensure that undergraduate and graduate students at the participating institutions will have access to state-of-the-art mass spectrometry instrumentation. In addition, high school students, 80% of whom are African American, will learn about polymers and how MALDI-ToF MS can determine molecular weights and repeating units.The acquisition of a MALDI-ToF MS will enhance existing MS capabilities and enable new research not currently possible at Tulane, Dillard and Loyola. These new capabilities will elucidate the interaction of structure and molecular weight for a variety of large molecules. For example, the degradation of hexadecapeptide found in Alzheimer’s patients can be investigated by the arrangement of the labile amino acids. Topological transitions of DNA will also be investigated using gyrase variants in bacteria. A number of these gyrase variants have higher (proline) or lower (glycine) flexibility, and it will be useful to determine the high molecular weight degradation products of these compounds. The polymer structure of bis(hydroxymethyl)propanoic acid (purely linear, purely dendritic, or randomly hyperbranched) will also be investigated. The new instrumentation will also be used to characterize the end groups of poly(ethylene glycol) polymers. There will be many mass spectrometry analyses that the new instrumentation can do quite easily, including DNA, cavitands, inorganic complexes, etc. that will be hard or impossible without this instrument.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.