Mass spectrometry system for sensitive proteomics

我们建议购买一个分析蛋白质及其修饰的系统，该系统基于一种名为LC-MS/MS的技术，该技术是蛋白质组学(大规模和全面分析蛋白质及其修饰)的强大工具。蛋白质组学技术在表征生物过程的机制以及发现用于诊断和精确医学的药物靶点和生物标记物方面有应用。LC-MS/MS能够鉴定生物和临床样品中的蛋白质，并能以高精密度和准确度定量它们的数量。巴茨癌症研究所(BCI)的质谱学实验室为巴茨研究所、伦敦医学与牙科学院(SMD)和伦敦玛丽女王大学(QMUL)的研究小组提供蛋白质组学支持。该实验室为该机构的一大批科学家提供高质量的蛋白质组学服务。来自实验室的数据的质量反映在实验室支持的高质量出版物(&gt；70)和研究拨款(价值约1500万GB)的数量以及非学术成果(8项专利和2家衍生公司)中。BCI/SMD蛋白质组学核心实验室由两个基于质谱仪技术的LC-MS/MS系统组成，现在已有10多年的历史，不再能够完全支持其用户不断变化的需求。特别是，具有更高灵敏度和分析速度的新仪器的出现开辟了新的研究途径，而我们目前的仪器由于深度和灵敏度的限制，无法进行这些研究。最近的一项技术发展是分析单个细胞的能力，而不是标准蛋白质组学分析中的平均细胞。加入能够实施这项敏感技术的设备将使我们的研究界能够了解健康生物体中的组织异质性以及这如何有助于疾病的演变和治疗反应。安装后，最先进的仪器将接受低投入和单细胞蛋白质组项目的测试，并由蛋白质组设施的申请者和其他用户在广泛的项目中使用，这些项目反映了BCI/SMD在癌症、血管和内分泌生物学以及自身免疫疾病方面的研究优势。这一新设备不仅将增加BCI/SMD蛋白质组学设施能够支持的项目数量和这些项目的数据质量，而且还将使我们能够在单细胞分析方面进行研究，这是我们目前的仪器无法进行的。

We propose the purchase of a system for the analysis of proteins and their modifications based on a technique named liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which is a powerful tool for proteomics (large scale and comprehensive analysis of proteins and their modifications). Proteomics technology has applications in the characterisation of mechanisms of biological processes and in the discovering of drug targets and biomarkers for diagnosis and precision medicine. LC-MS/MS is able to identify proteins in biological and clinical samples and also quantify their amounts with high precision and accuracy. The mass spectrometry laboratory at Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) provides proteomics support to research groups at the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD) and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). This laboratory provides a high quality proteomics service to a large community of scientists at this institution. The quality of the data derived from the laboratory is reflected in the number of high raking publications (>70 in the last 10 years) and research grants (~£15M in value) that the laboratory has supported, as well as in its non-academics outputs (eight patents and two spin-out companies).The BCI/SMD proteomics core laboratory consists of two of LC-MS/MS systems based on mass spectrometer technology that is now more than 10 years old, and is no longer capable of fully supporting the evolving needs of its users. Particularly, the advent of new instruments with greater sensitivity and speed of analysis opens new avenues of research that our current instrumentation, due to limitations in depth and sensitivity, is not able to undertake. A recent technological development is the ability of analysing single cells, instead of an average of cells as in standard proteomics analysis. Incorporation of equipment capable of implementing this sensitive technology will allow our research community to understand tissue heterogeneity in healthy organisms and how this may contribute to disease evolution and responses to therapies.After installation, the state-of-the-art instrument will be tested for low input and single cell proteomics projects and used by the applicants and other users of the proteomics facility in a wide range of projects that reflect BCI/SMD research strengths in cancer, vascular and endocrine biology and auto-immune disease. This new equipment will not only increase the number of projects that the BCI/SMD proteomics facility will be able to support and the quality of data for those projects, but will also allow us to perform research in single cell analysis that is not possible to undertake with our current instrumentation.