LC/MS system (Mass spectrometer online coupled to HPLC)

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The analytics lab of the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) of the University of Tübingen provides a service platform for metabolomics. These targeted and untargeted metabolite analyses are primarily offered to the research groups of the ZMBP and the CRC 1101, but in addition, as part of the Center for Quantitative Biology (QBiC), they are also provided to all members of the University of Tübingen and its external partners. The analytics lab is run by three permanent scientists and a permanent technician. Any person of the lab is dedicated to a special instrument, thus providing different analyses, but they are able to replace each other. The analyses of very diverse samples from different research areas within the University of Tübingen (e.g. plant biology, microbiology, ecology, biochemistry, geo-­sciences or medical research), are conducted with different analytical instrumentations, among them two liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems. Whereas one LC/MS instrument is mainly used for total unknown metabolomics analysis and structural elucidations, the second one is dedicated to most accurate and reproducible quantitative analyses of selected analytes. The later instrument is meanwhile 15 years old and repair costs and – times have been increasing during the last couple of years. This meanwhile results in a significantly decreased sample throughput and thus longer waiting times for quantitative analyses. In addition, the current system does not offer the analytical sensitivity needed to answer modern research questions in the areas of e.g. (plant) hormones, cytokinins, low abundant amino acids and vitamins, sugar phosphates and phosphorylated peptides. Due to these reasons we herein apply for the replacement of the current system by a modern and more sensitive instrument.