Central Analytical Laboratory and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility
Information about theÌýCentral Analytical Laboratory and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility
Contact: Thomas Lee
Website:Ìý
Instruments
The AB/Sciex 4000 Qtrap is a triple quadruple (QQQ) instrument, specialized in selected reaction monitors (SRM)/multiple reaction monitor (MRM) for absolute quantification of molecule(s) in a complex mixture. ÌýIt has great sensitivity and broad dynamic range of 4000 Qtrap, making it an optimum system for SRM/MRM types of experiments. One example of SRM/MRM experiments is estimation of absolute quantity of drug metabolites in a serum.
​The Agilent 6120 is a single quadruple mass spectrometry coupled with the HPLC. ÌýIt is user operated. ÌýIt has lower resolving power and accuracy, compared to the Synapt G2 and orbitrap mass spectrometer. Many users use this instrument to quickly monitor organic molecules during the course of synthesis.
​This instrument couples a gas chromatographic separation of analytes prior to mass analysis using electron impact (EI) for identification of small, volatile molecules.
Thermofisher LTQ orbitrap has two mass analyzers 1) orbitrap 2) linear ion trap. ÌýOrbitrap provides high resolution and high accuracy mass spectrum, whereas linear ion trap is capable of collision induced dissociation (CID) for peptide sequencing with a faster scan rate. ÌýBy combining the strength of orbitrap and linear ion trap, LTQ orbitrap can identify and quantify thousands of different proteins in a few days.
LTQ orbitrap Velos is the next generation of LTQ orbitrap. ÌýThe Velos has all the strengths of LTQ orbitrap. In addition, the Velos has a linear ion trap with a better design which improves scan rates and sensitivity, which provides greater number of peptide identification from very complex samples (e.g. whole cell lysates), compared to LTQ orbitrap. ÌýThe Velos is also equipped with electron transfer dissociation (ETD), which is the method of choice for identification of post-translational modification and sequencing of intact proteins.
Synapt G2 is a q-TOF hybrid instrument, mainly used for small molecule mass analysis and hydrogen/deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry (HDX-MS). ÌýIt has an electrospray ionization (ESI) interface, meaning that analytes need to be dissolved in mixture of aqueous/organic solution (e.g. 50% methanol/50% water or 30% acetonitrile/70% water). ÌýWe provide high resolution mass analyses with less than 5 ppm accuracy for small molecules. ÌýUsers can operate the machine after a training session. ÌýSynapt G2 is also specialized for hydrogen/deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry which is a great tool to monitor protein conformational change, protein-protein interactions, and protein-small molecule interactions.