QqTOF Hybrid Mass Spectrometer

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案寻求资金以购买ABI QSTAR ELITE四极杆/飞行时间（QqTOF）混合质谱仪，用于可靠阐明复杂生物混合物中蛋白质的翻译后修饰和小分子分析。所要求的仪器是必不可少的新兴的研究需要的11个NIH赞助的主要用户在康奈尔大学威尔医学院和干部的20多个小用户。QqTOF将被纳入医学院的质谱核心，这是一个于1997年开放的设施，致力于为工作人员和操作提供机构支持。MS CORE设施为威尔医学院和相关医院的研究人员提供质谱分析的唯一来源。基于MS的分析的适度资源目前被需求所超越。蛋白质功能调节的基础是其共价翻译后修饰（PTM）的瞬间变化。因此，它不仅是重要的，以确定和量化细胞的蛋白质的队伍，而且共价修饰是关键的生物控制。为了满足这一需求，最近出现了各种强大的高通量技术，依赖于MS来规范和定量蛋白质PTM。这些新的和不断发展的MS方法已在许多研究中成功地利用，以严格识别复杂生物环境中数百种蛋白质上的数十种PTM。在这里，我们建议这样的仪器分析蛋白质PTM提供给生物医学科学家在威尔医学院。主要用户群体对所需技术的访问将用于蛋白质磷酸化、甲基化、亚硝基化、硝化和泛素化的检测和相对定量--这将大大推进他们在细胞间通讯、干细胞生物学、卵子发生、脑功能、神经元信号传导和分化等领域的NIH支持的研究。QqTOF的使用将扩展到小生物分子的分析，利用仪器的准确质量测定和定量的能力。QqTOF MS系统的授予将显着扩展威尔康奈尔大学MS CORE设施的能力，并使其每年服务的数十名NIH支持的生物医学研究人员的研究计划受益。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks funds to purchase an ABI QSTAR ELITE quadrupole/time- of-flight (QqTOF) hybrid mass spectrometer for confident elucidation of post-translational modifications of proteins in complex biological mixtures and analysis of small molecules. The requested instrumentation is essential for the emerging research needs of eleven NIH-sponsored major users at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a cadre of more than twenty minor users. The QqTOF will be made available to investigators by inclusion in the Medical College's Mass Spectrometry CORE, a facility that opened in 1997 with committed institutional support for staff and operations. The MS CORE facility provides the sole source of mass spectrometric analysis to researchers at the Weill Medical College and associated hospitals. The modest resources for MS-based analyses is currently outstripped by demand Fundamental to the regulation of a protein's function are its moment-to-moment changes in covalent postranslational modifications (PTMs). Thus, it is not only important to identify and quantify a cell's protein contingent, but also the covalent modifications that are key to biological control. To address this need, a variety of powerful and high- throughput technologies have recently emerged, relying on MS for specification and quantification of protein PTMs. These new and evolving MS approaches have been successfully exploited in numerous studies to rigorously identify dozens of PTMs on hundreds of proteins in complex biological milieu. Here we propose to make such instrumentation for analysis of protein PTMs available to biomedical scientists at the Weill Medical College. Access of the major user group to the requested technology will be utilized for the detection and relative quantitation of protein phosphorylation, methylation, nitrosylation, nitration and ubiquitination -- this will significantly advance their NIH-supported research in areas extending from cell-cell communication, stem cell biology, oogenesis, brain function, neuronal signaling and differentiation. Use of the QqTOF will extend to analysis of small biological molecules, taking advantage of the instrument's ability for accurate mass determination and quantification. Award of the QqTOF MS system will markedly expand the capabilities of the MS CORE facility at Weill Cornell and benefit the research programs of dozens of NIH-supported biomedical investigators that it serves annually.