Peptidomics and Proteomics Core Facility fast scanning high resolution mass spectrometer

Wellcome-MRC代谢科学研究所的多肽和蛋白质组学核心专门识别和测量血浆和组织样本中的多肽和小蛋白。血液中的多肽和蛋白质的分析尤其具有挑战性，因为感兴趣的蛋白质可能存在于非常低的水平，而在非常高的水平上发现了许多其他蛋白质，它们起到了掩膜的作用。如果不先去除这些丰度较高的蛋白质，就很难检测到丰度较低的多肽和蛋白质。我们的实验室已经开发出特定的方法来去除这些高度丰富的蛋白质，这样我们就可以检测到浓度低得多的小肽和蛋白质。胰岛素激素就是一个很好的例子。在血液中，它的水平比白蛋白低约10亿倍，但我们的方法和我们目前的质谱仪相结合，使我们能够在如此低的浓度下检测到胰岛素，尽管有白蛋白的背景。不幸的是，这是我们现有仪器的灵敏度极限(50pg/mL)，但还有许多其他多肽的水平远远低于胰岛素，我们根本难以检测到。自从我们购买了目前的质谱仪以来，技术有了显著的进步，新的仪器将使我们能够检测血液中存在的较低浓度的多肽和激素。新仪器将用于一系列研究，其中许多集中在确定代谢疾病的原因和潜在的新疗法，包括2型糖尿病、肥胖症和癌症恶病质，以及开发新的肿瘤和肠道疾病诊断测试。购买更新、更快、更强大的仪器的能力将使多肽公司和蛋白质组学核心公司在未来十年的服务得到极大改善。

The Peptidomics and Proteomics Core at the Wellcome-MRC institute of Metabolic Science specialises in identifying and measuring peptides and small proteins in plasma and tissue samples. The analysis of peptides and proteins in blood is particularly challenging because the protein of interest might be present at very low levels, and there are a number of other proteins found at very high levels that act as a mask. Detecting the lower abundant peptides and proteins is very difficult without removing these high abundance proteins first. Our laboratory has developed specific methods to remove these high abundant proteins so that we can detect the smaller peptides and proteins present at much lower concentrations.A good example of this is the hormone insulin. This is present in blood at levels around a billion times lower than albumin, but the combination of our methods and our current mass spectrometer enable us to detect insulin at this low concentration despite the albumin background.Unfortunately this is the limit of the sensitivity of our existing instrument (50pg/mL), yet there are many other peptides that circulate at levels far lower than insulin, which we struggle to detect at all. Since we purchased our current mass spectrometer, there have been significant advances in technology, and the new instruments will enable us to be able to detect peptides and hormones present at lower concentrations in blood.The new instrument will be used for a range of studies, many focussed on identifying the causes and potential new treatments for metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer cachexia, and developing new diagnostic tests for tumours and intestinal diseases. The ability to purchase a newer, faster and more capable instrument will give the Peptidomics and Proteomics Core a vastly improved service for the next decade.