Instruments, Softwares & Samples
Instruments
Waters Q-Tof Premier Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer
The mass spectrometers in the MS Core include a Waters Q-Tof Premier Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer with electrospray ionization (esi), nanospray esi, and maldi sources. This instrument has resolution up to 17,000 and a mass range up to 100,000 Da. A nanoAcquity UPLC is interfaced with this instrument. It is used for accurate mass determination of synthetic organic compounds, bottom-up proteomic analysis, and ESI-MS of proteins.
Waters Xevo TQ mass spectrometer
A Waters Xevo TQ mass spectrometer with esi and nanospray esi sources is also included among the mass specs available. This is a tandem mass spectrometer with two quadrupole mass analyzers separated by a scan wave collision cell and can be used to acquire both MS and MS/MS spectra. It is can be interfaced with two available liquid chromatographs—a nanoAcquity UPLC and a standard Acquity UPLC. This instrument if useful for quantification of analytes by LC-MS/MS using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) or single ion reaction monitoring (SIR) methods.
Hewlett-Packard (Agilent) 5973 Mass Select Detector with a 6890 Gas Chromatograph
The last mass spec in the lab is a Hewlett-Packard (Agilent) 5973 Mass Select Detector with a 6890 Gas Chromatograph. This instrument, equipped with a single quadrupole mass analyzer, is useful for the analysis of chemicals that are volatile or can be made to be volatile by heating or derivatization. It can be set up for electron impact (EI) ionization or chemical ionization (CI). It is equipped with a standard automatic liquid sampler and headspace sampler.
Software
To process raw proteomic data and to identify proteins present in samples, the core facility has available Protein Lynx Global Server (Waters Corp.) and Mascot (Matrix Science) software. These applications allow users to process raw proteomic data from the Premier Q-Tof mass spec and search databases of publicly available protein sequences to identify sources of peptides. Custom databases can also be made and searched. Software tools also include the quantitation software QuanLynx and TargetLynx to integrate chromatograms, calculate analyte concentration from standard curves, and produce reports.
Sample Preparation Resources
The mass spec core is equipped with sample preparation resources, including electrophoresis equipment, trypsin digestion reagents, sample extraction equipment, and sample derivatization accessories. This allows facility users access to equipment to prepare samples if they don’t have the resources in their own labs. Sample preparation services done by facility staff is available and is charged at an hourly rate.