High performance mass spectrometry at the University of Birmingham

质谱法是一种公认的分子结构表征技术。质谱法成功的主要原因是每个分子都有质量，不像生物分析化学中有时测量的其他性质，如磁矩或特定波长的光吸光度。分子的质量取决于其原子的组成，因为每个原子都有独特的质量。只要质谱仪的精度足够高，那么对分子质量的测量就可以确定其元素组成。样品越复杂，无论是成分的数量还是分子的大小（原子的数量），质量分析就越具有挑战性。这一事实是由于来自不同分子或同一分子（同位素）版本的重叠信号，为了解决这个问题，需要一个非常高分辨率的质谱仪。生物研究中充斥着需要高分辨率质谱分析的样品类型：代谢组学样品包含数千种低分子量物种。蛋白质是与大量化学修饰相关的大分子，它们与自身、其他蛋白质和其他分子类型形成松散结合的复合物。该提案的目的是使最新发展的最高性能类型的质谱-傅里叶变换离子回旋共振质谱-在伯明翰大学的生物研究和超越。该提案汇集了来自不同学科的广泛研究人员，以解决BBSRC的几个关键战略重点（生命过程中的健康老龄化，合成生物学，抗微生物药物耐药性，食品，营养与健康，生物科学技术）。

Mass spectrometry is well-established as a technique for characterisation of molecular structure. The chief reason for the success of mass spectrometry is that every molecule has a mass, unlike other properties sometimes measured in bioanalytical chemistry, such as a magnetic moment or absorbance of light at a particular wavelength. The mass of a molecule depends on the composition of its atoms, as each atom has a unique mass. As long as the accuracy of the mass spectrometer is high enough, then measurement of a molecule's mass allows determination of the elemental composition. The more complex the sample, either in terms of the number of components or in terms of the size of the molecule (the number of atoms), the more challenging is mass analysis. This fact is due to overlapping signals from different molecules or versions of the same molecule (isotopomers) and in order to address the problem, a very high resolution mass spectrometer is required.Biological research is overflowing with sample types that require high resolution mass spectrometry: Metabolomic samples contain thousands of low molecular weight species. Proteins are large molecules associated with a vast array of chemical modifications, and which form loosely-bound complexes with themselves, other proteins and other molecule types. The aim of this proposal is to make available the latest developments in the highest performance type of mass spectrometry - Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry - to biological research at the University of Birmingham and beyond. The proposal brings together a broad range of researchers from diverse disciplines to address several key strategic priorities for BBSRC (Healthy ageing across the life course, Synthetic biology, Combatting antimicrobial resistance, Food, nutrition & health, Technology for the biosciences).