Acquisition of a High-Throughput Proteomics Robotic Workstation for the Cornell University Bioresource Center

康奈尔大学获得了一笔赠款，用于购买一个高通量机器人平台，该平台将执行二维蛋白质电泳（2DE）凝胶点拾取，点消化，消化清理和点样到基质辅助激光解吸电离靶板（MALDI）用于质谱分析（MS）。该机器人平台将由康奈尔大学生物技术资源中心（BRC）管理，康奈尔大学或任何其他机构的任何研究人员都可以访问该平台。康奈尔大学BRC是一个共享使用和收费服务设施，包括九个核心服务，并在2000/2001财政年度产生150万美元的收入。机器人工作站将通过提供最先进的仪器来增强核心设施的能力，该仪器将自动执行蛋白质组学实验中所需的许多费力步骤。尽管该定义可以广义地解释，但在这种情况下，“蛋白质组学”是指测量给定生物系统的蛋白质表达变化的能力，其目的是将这种变化与各种疾病状态、代谢状态或其他生物学感兴趣的特征相关联。这台仪器的获得将对康奈尔大学和其他任何有兴趣使用这一资源的机构的许多研究人员的研究计划产生积极影响。在蛋白质组学领域，蛋白质是从感兴趣的生物样品中收集的，目的是鉴定可能感兴趣的蛋白质表达变化。例如，可以从各种组织来源收集蛋白质，目的是鉴定与特定疾病的存在或不存在相关的变化。收集后，蛋白质通常被分离成蛋白质表达的独特指纹，作为该特定样品的条形码。这些蛋白质表达的指纹或条形码可以与识别这种模式的变化的目标进行比较。一旦在该条形码中识别出感兴趣的蛋白质，必须将蛋白质从其聚合物基质中切除，用化学品消化并放置在金属板上，该金属板可以放置在单独的仪器内进行分析。这些切除、消化和点样到金属板上的步骤非常费力，而高通量蛋白质组学机器人工作站将能够自动执行所有这些步骤。康奈尔大学处于独特的地位，可以从集成的蛋白质组学机器人平台中受益，因为相对而言，有大量的成熟实验室和研究人员致力于蛋白质组学。这一承诺反映在新成立的康奈尔大学蛋白质组学计划，这是一个以教师为主导的，全校范围的计划。CPP目前包括来自康奈尔大学8个不同单位的11名核心教师，这些单位跨越了许多不同的部门，学院和研究设施。该仪器的收购将对由蛋白质组学计划教师运行的几个特定的联邦资助的研究项目（NSF，NIH，USDA）产生重要影响。其中许多项目涉及女性或其他代表性不足的少数民族的研究生研究助理。此外，这些研究生研究助理中有许多是通过NSF研究生研究奖学金资助的。此外，该仪器可用于实验教学活动。

A grant has been awarded to Cornell University to acquire a high-throughput robotics platform which will perform two-dimensional protein electrophoresis (2DE) gel spot picking, spot digestion, digest clean-up and spotting to matrix assisted laser-desorption ionization target plates (MALDI) for mass spectrometry (MS). This robotics platform will be housed in and managed by the Cornell University Biotechnology Resource Center (BRC) and it will be accessible by any investigator at Cornell or at any other institution. The Cornell BRC is a shared-use and fee-for-service facility encompassing nine core services and generating $1.5 million in income during FY 2000/2001. The robotic workstation will enhance the capabilities of the core facility by providing a state-of-the-art instrument which will automatically perform many of the laborious steps required in proteomics experiments. Although the definition can be interpreted broadly, 'proteomics', in this case, refers to the ability to measure changes in the protein expression of a given biological system with the goal of relating such changes to various disease states, metabolic states or other features of biological interest. The acquisition of this instrument will have a positive impact on the research programs of many of the investigators at Cornell and at any other institution interested in using this resource.In the field of proteomics, proteins are collected from biological samples of interest with the goal of identifying changes in protein expression that may be interesting. For example, proteins may be collected from various tissue sources with the goal of identifying changes that relate to the presence or absence of a particular disease. After collection, the proteins are often separated into a unique fingerprint of protein expression that serves as a barcode for that particular sample. These fingerprints or barcodes of protein expression can be compared with the goal of identifying changes in this pattern. Once proteins of interest are identified within this barcode, the proteins must be excised from their polymer matrix, digested with chemicals and placed onto metal plates which can be placed inside separate instruments for analysis. These steps of excision, digest and spotting to metal plates is very laborious and the high-throughput proteomics robotic workstation will be able to perform all of these steps automatically.Cornell University is uniquely positioned to benefit from an integrated proteomics robotics platform because of the relatively large number of established laboratories and investigators that are committed to proteomics. This commitment is reflected by the newly established Cornell Proteomics Program which is a faculty-led, University-wide Program. The CPP currently includes eleven core faculty from eight different units at Cornell spanning a number of different Departments, Colleges and Research Facilities. The acquisition of this instrument will have an important impact on several specific federally-funded research projects (NSF, NIH, USDA) which are being run by Proteomics Program faculty. Many of these projects involve graduate student research assistants that are female or from other underrepresented minorities. Further, many of these graduate student research assistants are funded through NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Further, this instrument may be used in laboratory teaching activities.