A request for funds to purchase an AB Sciex TripleTOF 5600 mass spectrometer

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to purchase an AB Sciex TripleTOF" 5600 mass spectrometer equipped with capillary/nano liquid chromatography. The instrument will be primarily used to facilitate the research of 14 NIH funded investigators within the Texas A&M University (TAMU) system. Scientists at the forefront of exciting efforts including cancer research, human health, structural biology, and drug discovery al require the ability to accurately identify, and characterize important molecular species and determine specific interactions between complexes of molecules. The 5600 will provide NIH funded researchers at TAMU significantly better capabilities in the analysis of complex biological systems, specifically proteins, modified proteins, peptides, lipids, and metabolites than currently exist at TAMU. The instrument will be housed within the Laboratory for Biological Mass Spectrometry (LBMS). LBMS staff scientists have extensive expertise in the operation and maintenance of commercial MS systems as well as training of a large number of MS users. It is estimated that the proposed instrument is greater than two orders of magnitude more sensitive with greater functionality when compared to similar instrumentation housed in the LBMS (a 13 year old QSTAR Pulsar in desperate need of upgrading). Moreover, in our evaluation of available instruments the 5600 was superior to all others. The 5600 offers substantial advances in terms of mass resolution, mass accuracy, linear dynamic range, and throughput over our current instrumentation. The exceptional sensitivity and utility of these instruments (described in detail below) will provide capabilities that are currently lacking in the LBMS; these capabilities are essential for the research by the NIH-funded research projects described in this grant, and these capabilities will directly impact the outcomes and public health significance of these projects.