Establishment of mass spectrometry based proteomic capabilities at Queen's University Belfast

生物科学学院(SBS)的资产技术中心(SBS)和贝尔法斯特女王大学(QUB)的全球粮食安全研究所(IGFS)专注于应对生物科学、食品安全和动物健康方面的挑战。这项提议寻求在QUB建立用于蛋白质组分析的资产内的尖端能力。蛋白质组是一个术语，用来描述给定细胞、组织或生物体在任何给定时间产生的一整套蛋白质。分析蛋白质组使我们能够更好地了解生物体和细胞实际上是如何运作的，并对不同的环境或挑战做出反应。我们使用称为质谱学和液相色谱(LC-MS)的技术来测量蛋白质组。我们希望购买一台LC-MS系统，一台布鲁克TIMES-TOF HT。该系统优于其他仪器，具有速度快、灵敏度高、通用性强等特点。它还具有先进的离子迁移率，这意味着它可以根据它们在仪器中的移动方式来分离几乎相同的多肽(蛋白质的一小部分)。这对于翻译后修饰(理解指导蛋白质完成不同任务的分子)的工作来说尤其强大。目前在QUB还没有完成这项工作的中心能力。所要求的设备将是昆士兰大学的变革性设备，作为拼图的最后一块，为IGFS、SBS内的70多个研究小组以及整个大学更多的研究小组提供完整的系统生物学管道。在短期内，这一仪器将支持一些价值数百万英镑的基础科学研究项目。从中长期来看，这些设备将为开发新的研究主题提供机会，为SBS和IGFS在生物科学、食品完整性、农场、动物健康和作物完整性方面的优先事项提供新的方法和解决方案，以应对21世纪的未来和营养挑战。该提案中概述的示范项目展示了从细菌到人类、从生化工程到陆地生态学、从计算生物学家到临床生物学家，以及介于两者之间的一系列生物体和学科的多学科用途和使用。显然，该系统将在广泛的应用中使用，并将建立与来自一系列行业的工业合作伙伴互动的能力，包括北爱尔兰和英国的食品加工和安全、诊断和农业部门。所要求的设备将为研究界内的研究培训作出重要贡献。更高级的培训将与我们在大学和工业中的合作伙伴一起进行，现场培训方案将在资产范围内接待科学家，并就仪器的背景和实际应用进行培训，提高国内和国际劳动力在关键技术方面的技能。该仪器将对昆士兰大学科学界内的生物样本进行充满信心的蛋白质组分析。这将使QUB、其更广泛的合作伙伴和协作者之间的项目成为可能，而这在以前是不可能的。促进北爱尔兰经济，并帮助提升各省的水平。

The ASSET Technology Centre in the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) and Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) focuses on addressing bioscience, food-safety and animal-health challenges. This proposal seeks to establish, at QUB, cutting edge capability, within ASSET, for proteome analysis. The proteome is a term used to describe the entire set of proteins that are produced by a given cell, tissue or organism at any given time. Analysing the proteome allows us to gain a better understanding about how organisms and cells actually function and respond to different environments or challenges. We measure the proteome using techniques called mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography (LC-MS). We wish to purchase an LC-MS system, a Bruker timsTOF HT. This system is superior to other instruments; it is faster, more sensitive and more versatile. It also has advanced ion mobility, which means that it can separate almost identical peptides (small sections of proteins) based on how they move through the instrument. This is particularly powerful for work on post-translational modifications (understanding molecules that direct proteins to complete different tasks).There is currently no central capability to do this at QUB. The requested equipment would be transformative at QUB as the 'final piece in the jigsaw' providing a whole systems biology pipeline for more than 70 research groups within IGFS, SBS and to an even greater number across the University. In the short term, this instrumentation will support a number fundamental science research projects worth millions of pounds. Over the medium to longer term the equipment will provide opportunities for the development of novel research themes in the delivery of new approaches and solutions for the SBS & IGFS priorities in bioscience, food integrity, farms, animal health and crop integrity addressing the future and nutritional challenges of the 21st Century. The exemplar projects outlined within this proposal demonstrate the multidisciplinary purpose & use of the equipment ranging from bacterium to human, biochemical engineering to terrestrial ecology, computational biologist to clinical biologists, and a swathe of organisms and disciplines in between. Clearly this system will be used across a wide range of applications and will build capacity to interact with industrial partners from a range of industries, including food processing and safety, diagnostics and agriculture sectors across Northern Ireland and the UK. The requested equipment will provide an important contribution to research training within the research community. More advanced training will occur in conjunction with our partners in both university and industry, with on-site training programmes where scientists will be hosted within ASSET and trained in the background and practical applications of the instrumentation, upskilling the national and international workforce in a key technology. This instrument will be transformative for confident proteome analyses of biological samples within the scientific community at QUB. This will enable projects across QUB, its wider partners and collaborators that would previously not be possible. Enhancing the Northern Ireland economy and aiding in provincial levelling up.