IMMACULATE: Improving Mass Spectrometry Sustainability in Food, Environmental, and Health Research

在贝尔法斯特女王大学全球粮食安全研究所（IGFS）内，利用质谱（MS）的（生物）分析化学，位于ASSET技术中心内，是支撑我们的食品，环境和健康研究的基本技术。我们的能力涵盖筛选（光谱平台和敞开式电离MS）、靶向（液相和气相色谱单重和三重四极杆（TQ）-MS）以及从小分子到蛋白质的分析方法（四极杆飞行时间MS）。在我们的工作组合中使用的主要平台之一是TQ-MS与液相色谱耦合。例如，这用于食品污染物的目标分析，食品和环境样品中抗生素及其残留物的检测，以及与健康状况相关的代谢物的定量。这项工作的大部分依赖于仪器的灵敏度，以检测和准确定量低丰度但具有生物学重要性的代谢物，并满足食品和环境法规日益苛刻的检测和定量限制。此外，Xevo TQ Absolute在直接注入分析中表现出出色的性能，这为在特定应用中消除色谱分离的需要提供了机会，从而减少了每个样品分析的环境影响。此外，直接注入的使用减少了样品提取和处理要求，以及相关的一次性塑料耗材及其对环境的影响。“绿色”（生物）分析化学的概念正在成为分析方法可持续性的核心。这既涉及远离化石燃料基消耗品和溶剂，又涉及增加工作流程的分析吞吐量，以减少每个样品分析对环境的影响。因此，我们建议将沃茨Xevo TQ Absolute仪器与沃茨公司的UPC 2超临界流体色谱（SFC）和Acquity Premier系统（具有二维液相色谱（2D-LC）功能）配对。这将为昆士兰大学的ASSET技术中心提供独特的尖端仪器，使其处于使用质谱法提高可持续性的（生物）分析化学基本转变的最前沿。这种专用的分析设备组合将是英国和国际上的第一个，我们相信将成为公共和私人研究机构合作研究的焦点。反映了QUB研究的广度和实力，该提案已经组建了一个调查小组，该小组将利用该提案所带来的分析能力的增强，进行已经获得英国广播公司科学研究委员会大量资金的研究（卡梅隆，休斯和埃利奥特），并符合BBSRC战略优先事项，包括动物健康（Huws，Hyland和Elliott），打击AMR（Huws，Hyland，麦格拉思和Gilpin），数据驱动生物学（卡梅隆，休斯，海兰，埃利奥特，康奈利，麦格拉思，吉尔平，和绿色），食品，营养和健康（卡梅隆，埃利奥特，康奈利和绿色），健康老龄化（绿色），综合微生物组研究（卡梅隆，休斯，海兰，麦格拉思，吉尔平），减少食物链浪费（Huws，Hyland和Elliott），研究告知公共政策（卡梅隆，休斯，海兰，埃利奥特，康奈利，麦格拉思和吉尔平），可持续地加强农业（Huws，Hyland和Elliott），系统方法（卡梅隆，康奈利，麦格拉思，吉尔平和绿色）和管理动物的福利（Huws，Hyland和Elliott）。

Within the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen's University Belfast, (bio)analytical chemistry utilising mass spectrometry (MS), housed within the ASSET Technology Centre, is a fundamental enabling technology underpinning our food, environmental, and health research. Our capabilities extend across screening (spectroscopic platforms and ambient ionisation MS), targeted (liquid and gas chromatography single and triple quadrupole (TQ)-MS), and profiling methodologies from small molecules to proteins (quadrupole time-of-flight MS). One of the mainstay platforms used across our portfolio of work is TQ-MS coupled to liquid chromatography. This is used in, for example, targeted analysis for food contaminants, detection of antibiotics and their residues in food and environmental samples, and quantification of metabolites linked to health status. Much of this work is reliant on the sensitivity of instrumentation to detect and accurately quantify low abundant but biologically important metabolites, and to meet ever-increasingly demanding limits of detection and quantification for food and environmental regulations. Furthermore, the Xevo TQ Absolute shows excellent performance capabilities in direct infusion analysis which offers opportunities to remove the need for chromatographic separation in particular applications and therefore, decrease the environmental impact of each sample analysis. Furthermore, the use of direct infusion reduces the sample extraction and processing requirements, and the associated single-use plastic consumables and their environmental impact.The concept of 'green' (bio)analytical chemistry is becoming central to the sustainability of analytical methods. This involves both a movement away from fossil-fuel based consumables and solvents and increasing the analytical throughput of workflows to reduce the environmental impact of each sample analysis. As such, we propose to pair the Waters Xevo TQ Absolute instrument with the UPC2 supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and Acquity Premier system with a capability for two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) from Waters Corporation. This will uniquely equip the ASSET Technology Centre at QUB with cutting-edge instrumentation to position itself at the forefront of the essential transition of (bio)analytical chemistry using mass spectrometry to improve sustainability. This dedicated combination of analytical equipment would be the first in the UK and internationally, and we believe would act as a focal point for collaborative research across public and private research organisations.Reflecting the breadth and strength of QUB research, this proposal has assembled an Investigatory team that will exploit the increased analytical capabilities enabled by this proposal in research that has already received substantial BBSRC funding (Cameron, Huws, and Elliott) and which fits into BBSRC Strategic Priorities including Animal Health (Huws, Hyland, and Elliott), Combatting AMR (Huws, Hyland, McGrath, and Gilpin), Data Driven Biology (Cameron, Huws, Hyland, Elliott, Connelly, McGrath, Gilpin, and Green), Food, Nutrition, and Health (Cameron, Elliott, Connelly, and Green), Healthy Ageing (Green), Integrative Microbiome Research (Cameron, Huws, Hyland, McGrath, Gilpin), Reducing Food Chain Waste (Huws, Hyland, and Elliott), Research to Inform Public Policy (Cameron, Huws, Hyland, Elliott, Connelly, McGrath, and Gilpin), Sustainably Enhancing Agriculture (Huws, Hyland, and Elliott), Systems Approaches (Cameron, Connelly, McGrath, Gilpin, and Green), and Welfare of Managed Animals (Huws, Hyland, and Elliott).