Fast and Sensitive Mass Spectrometry

我们建议购买一套高端质谱仪系统，该系统能够实现高速数据采集和高灵敏度。这是为了支持高通量和可重复性的无标签蛋白质组、代谢组、脂组和糖组工作流。样品将在几分钟而不是几个小时内进行分析，从而实现使用我们现有技术无法进行的大规模实验。该系统将包括快速液相色谱前端、质谱仪系统内的气相过滤/离子浓度(离子迁移率)以及快速碎裂和高分辨率检测技术。高密度数据以随时间推移的离子质量电荷比的形式生成(毫秒级)，然后可由专业软件处理，以识别单个分析器并读出它们的数量。应用范围从了解植物中的营养或药用化合物如何随不同品种或田间条件而变化，到了解光合作用二氧化碳固定等全球重要过程的蛋白质化学是如何工作并可以优化的，再到发现可以有效处理废物的新细菌或真菌酶。该系统将设在一个高效运行的核心设施环境中，维护、方法开发和项目工作流程将在调查人员和专门的专家核心资助设施工作人员之间密切协调。

We propose to purchase a high-end mass spectrometer system that is capable of high data acquisition speeds and high sensitivity. This is to support high-throughput and reproducible label-free proteomic, metabolomic, lipidomic, and glycomic, workflows. Samples will be analysed in minutes rather than hours, enabling large-scale experiments that are not possible using our existing technology. The system will include rapid liquid chromatography front-ends, gas phase filtering/ion concentration (ion mobility) incorporated within the mass spectrometer system, coupled with rapid fragmentation and high resolution detection technology. High-density data is generated (on the scale of milliseconds), in the form of ion mass-to-charge ratios over time, that can then be processed by specialist software to identify individual analystes and read-out their quantity. Applications range from understanding how nutritional or medicinal compounds in plants vary over different varieties or field conditions, to understanding how the protein chemistry of globally important processes like photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation works and can be optimized, to discovering new bacterial or fungal enzymes that can efficiently process waste materials. The system will be located in an efficiently run core facility environment, with maintenance, method development, and project workflows closely coordinated between investigators and dedicated expert core-funded facility staff.