QqTOF Hybrid Mass Spectrometer

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请寻求资金购买ABI QSTAR ELITE四极杆/飞行时间（QqTOF）混合质谱仪，用于确定复杂生物混合物中蛋白质的翻译后修饰和小分子分析。所要求的仪器对于美国国立卫生研究院资助的康奈尔大学威尔医学院的11个主要用户和20多个次要用户的新兴研究需求至关重要。QqTOF将通过纳入医学院的质谱中心向研究人员提供，该中心于1997年开放，为工作人员和业务提供了承诺的机构支持。MS CORE设备为威尔医学院和相关医院的研究人员提供了质谱分析的唯一来源。目前，基于质谱的分析资源有限，供不应求。蛋白质功能调控的基础是其在共价翻译后修饰（PTMs）中的时刻变化。因此，不仅重要的是鉴定和量化细胞的蛋白质偶然性，而且共价修饰是生物控制的关键。为了满足这一需求，最近出现了各种强大的高通量技术，依靠质谱来规范和定量蛋白质PTMs。这些新的和不断发展的质谱方法已经成功地应用于许多研究中，以严格识别复杂生物环境中数百种蛋白质上的数十种ptm。在这里，我们建议为威尔医学院的生物医学科学家提供这种用于分析蛋白质PTMs的仪器。主要用户群体获得所需技术的途径将用于蛋白质磷酸化、甲基化、亚硝基化、硝化和泛素化的检测和相对定量——这将显著推进他们在细胞-细胞通讯、干细胞生物学、卵子发生、脑功能、神经元信号传导和分化等领域的nih支持研究。利用该仪器精确测定质量和定量的能力，QqTOF的使用将扩展到小生物分子的分析。QqTOF质谱系统的授予将显著扩展威尔康奈尔的质谱核心设施的能力，并使其每年服务的数十名美国国立卫生研究院支持的生物医学研究人员的研究项目受益。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks funds to purchase an ABI QSTAR ELITE quadrupole/time- of-flight (QqTOF) hybrid mass spectrometer for confident elucidation of post-translational modifications of proteins in complex biological mixtures and analysis of small molecules. The requested instrumentation is essential for the emerging research needs of eleven NIH-sponsored major users at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a cadre of more than twenty minor users. The QqTOF will be made available to investigators by inclusion in the Medical College's Mass Spectrometry CORE, a facility that opened in 1997 with committed institutional support for staff and operations. The MS CORE facility provides the sole source of mass spectrometric analysis to researchers at the Weill Medical College and associated hospitals. The modest resources for MS-based analyses is currently outstripped by demand Fundamental to the regulation of a protein's function are its moment-to-moment changes in covalent postranslational modifications (PTMs). Thus, it is not only important to identify and quantify a cell's protein contingent, but also the covalent modifications that are key to biological control. To address this need, a variety of powerful and high- throughput technologies have recently emerged, relying on MS for specification and quantification of protein PTMs. These new and evolving MS approaches have been successfully exploited in numerous studies to rigorously identify dozens of PTMs on hundreds of proteins in complex biological milieu. Here we propose to make such instrumentation for analysis of protein PTMs available to biomedical scientists at the Weill Medical College. Access of the major user group to the requested technology will be utilized for the detection and relative quantitation of protein phosphorylation, methylation, nitrosylation, nitration and ubiquitination -- this will significantly advance their NIH-supported research in areas extending from cell-cell communication, stem cell biology, oogenesis, brain function, neuronal signaling and differentiation. Use of the QqTOF will extend to analysis of small biological molecules, taking advantage of the instrument's ability for accurate mass determination and quantification. Award of the QqTOF MS system will markedly expand the capabilities of the MS CORE facility at Weill Cornell and benefit the research programs of dozens of NIH-supported biomedical investigators that it serves annually.