LC/MS system (Mass spectrometer online coupled to HPLC)

图宾根大学植物分子生物学中心(ZMBP)分析实验室为代谢组学提供服务平台。这些目标和非目标代谢物分析主要提供给ZMBP和CRC 1101的研究小组，但此外，作为定量生物学中心(QBIC)的一部分，它们也提供给Tübingen大学的所有成员及其外部合作伙伴。分析实验室由三名常设科学家和一名常设技术人员运营。实验室中的任何人都致力于一种特殊的仪器，从而提供不同的分析，但他们能够相互取代。对图宾根大学内不同研究领域(如植物生物学、微生物学、生态学、生物化学、地球科学或医学研究)的各种样品进行了分析，使用了不同的分析仪器，其中包括两个LC/MS系统。一个LC/MS仪器主要用于完全未知的代谢组学分析和结构阐明，第二个仪器致力于对选定分析物进行最准确和最具重现性的定量分析。后者已经有15年的历史了，维修费用和维修次数在过去几年里一直在增加。与此同时，这导致样品吞吐量显著减少，从而延长了定量分析的等待时间。此外，目前的系统没有提供回答现代研究问题所需的分析灵敏度，例如(植物)激素、细胞分裂素、低丰度氨基酸和维生素、糖磷酸盐和磷酸化肽。由于这些原因，我们在此申请用一种更现代化和更灵敏的工具取代目前的系统。

The analytics lab of the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) of the University of Tübingen provides a service platform for metabolomics. These targeted and untargeted metabolite analyses are primarily offered to the research groups of the ZMBP and the CRC 1101, but in addition, as part of the Center for Quantitative Biology (QBiC), they are also provided to all members of the University of Tübingen and its external partners. The analytics lab is run by three permanent scientists and a permanent technician. Any person of the lab is dedicated to a special instrument, thus providing different analyses, but they are able to replace each other. The analyses of very diverse samples from different research areas within the University of Tübingen (e.g. plant biology, microbiology, ecology, biochemistry, geo-­sciences or medical research), are conducted with different analytical instrumentations, among them two liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems. Whereas one LC/MS instrument is mainly used for total unknown metabolomics analysis and structural elucidations, the second one is dedicated to most accurate and reproducible quantitative analyses of selected analytes. The later instrument is meanwhile 15 years old and repair costs and – times have been increasing during the last couple of years. This meanwhile results in a significantly decreased sample throughput and thus longer waiting times for quantitative analyses. In addition, the current system does not offer the analytical sensitivity needed to answer modern research questions in the areas of e.g. (plant) hormones, cytokinins, low abundant amino acids and vitamins, sugar phosphates and phosphorylated peptides. Due to these reasons we herein apply for the replacement of the current system by a modern and more sensitive instrument.