Robotic spot excision system for proteome analysis

在过去的几年里，蛋白质组学方法已经成为生物化学和生物学研究的重要组成部分，使得鉴定和表征单个蛋白质以及在高通量蛋白质组学实验中鉴定数百到数千种蛋白质成为可能。该领域的关键研究方法之一是二维凝胶电泳，它将复杂的蛋白质混合物分离成凝胶上的分离蛋白点，然后可以从凝胶中切除并通过质谱法进行鉴定。该系统将允许从2D凝胶中快速、精确地自动切除蛋白质斑点，同时减少外部来源的污染，提高蛋白质组学实验的准确性和通量。与滑铁卢大学现有的2D差分凝胶电泳和质谱分析能力一起，该系统将完成威斯康星大学的蛋白质组学工作流程系统。

In the last several years proteomics methods have become a vital component of biochemical and biological research, having made possible the identification and characterization of individual proteins and the identification of hundreds to thousands of proteins in high-throughput proteomics experiments. One of the key research methods in this field is 2D gel electrophoresis, which separates a complex mixture of proteins into isolated protein spots on a gel, which may then be excised from the gel and identified by mass spectrometry. This system will permit rapid and precise automated excision of protein spots from a 2D gel with minimal contamination from outside sources, increasing the accuracy and throughput of proteomics experiments. Along with the existing 2D differential in-gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry capability at the University of Waterloo, this system would complete a proteomics workflow system at UW.