Underpinning UK Biomolecular Research with Next-Generation High Resolution Mass Spectrometry at the University of Edinburgh

质谱仪(MS)是一种成熟的分析技术，影响着生物科学的各个领域。在过去的三十年里，质谱仪已经从一种常规的小分子分子质量测量技术发展成为分析非常大的生物分子(如蛋白质或DNA)或表征非常复杂的生物混合物的强大工具。这一进步的一个原因是现代质谱仪能够分离(解析)来自分子质量接近的分子的许多信号。现代的质谱仪也能以极高的精度测量质量。如果这个质量精确度足够高，那么测量到的质量就可以用来直接确定分子的元素组成。傅立叶变换离子回旋共振(FT-ICR)仪器是当今市场上性能最高的质谱仪--提供无与伦比的质量分辨率和质量精度。最近商用FT-ICR质谱仪的技术改进导致了质量分辨率、质量精度和速度的革命性提高。这项提议的目的是向爱丁堡大学的科学界、英国各地的其他学术机构以及我们在该行业的合作伙伴提供这一“下一代”仪器。新仪器将支持BBSRC在未来十年的几个关键战略优先事项中的科学研究(生物科学的技术开发；整个生命周期的健康老龄化；工业生物技术的新战略方法；抗菌素耐药性；合成生物学；动物研究的替代、改进和减少(3R)；这项提议汇集了广泛的研究人员，他们将在生物科学研究的三个主要领域利用这一新仪器：(1)详细分析具有生物重要性的蛋白质；(2)成像生物分子在组织和组织模型中的分布；(3)非常复杂的生物混合物中小分子的图谱和化学特征。

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a mature analytical technique that impacts all areas of the biological sciences. Over the last three decades MS has developed from a technique for routine molecular mass measurement of small molecules to become a powerful tool for the analysis of very large biological molecules (such as proteins or DNA) or for the characterisation of very complex biological mixtures. One reason for this advancement is the ability of modern mass spectrometers to separate (resolve) the many signals which derive from molecules which are close in molecular mass. Modern MS instruments can also measure mass with extremely high accuracy. If this mass accuracy is high enough, the measured mass can be used to directly determine a molecule's elemental composition. Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) instruments are the highest performance mass spectrometers available today - offering unsurpassed mass resolution and mass accuracy. Recent technological improvements in commercial FT-ICR mass spectrometers have resulted in transformative increases in mass resolution, mass accuracy, and speed. The aim of this proposal is to make this 'next-generation' instrumentation available to the scientific communities in the University of Edinburgh, other academic institutions throughout the UK, and our partners in the industry.The new instrument will underpin scientific research in several key strategic priorities for BBSRC for the next decade (technology development for the biosciences; healthy ageing across the lifecourse; new strategic approaches to industrial biotechnology; combatting antimicrobial resistance; synthetic biology; the replacement, refinement and reduction (3Rs) in research using animals; and bioenergy, food, nutrition and health).This proposal brings together a broad range of researchers who will exploit this new instrument in three main areas of bioscience research: (i) for detailed analysis of biologically important proteins; (ii) for imaging the distribution of biomolecules in tissues and tissue models; and (iii) for profiling and chemical characterisation of small molecules in very complex biological mixtures.