Equipment

Current instrumentation, methodologies and workflows

The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation. Currently the following instruments are operational at the facility:

• MALDI TOF TOF  (4700 Proteomics analyzer, Applied Biosystems)
• Electrospray Ion Trap Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Mass spectrometer (LTQ FT, ThermoFinnigan), equipped with nanoElectrospray source.
• Triple Quadrupole (Quantum AM ThermoFinnigan) equipped with nanoElectrospray source.
• Automatic Gel Slicer, with gel documentation and DIGE capabilities (ProPicII, DIGILAB Genomic Solutions)
• Automatic Digestor (ProGest, DIGILAB Genomic Solutions)
• Automatic MALDI Spotter (ProMS, DIGILAB Genomic Solutions)
• Database search servers: MASCOT and SEQUEST Cluster. The Sequest cluster is running on a dedicated 8 node double processor server.
• PEAKS. new software tool for protein identification and quantization. To download a viewer click here.

Some of the tools used at our facility have been custom build:

• HDXFinder (software for D/H Exchange analysis): A set of web-based computer applications for assisted Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry Analyisis. Access to this portal is free to academic users. Optimized for Mozilla Firefox. A draft of the manual can be downloaded here. Programer: Danny Miller. A project in collaboration with A. Fenton:

• SAIDE: a cooling chamber for DX MS experiments. This is an interface for HPLC and MS build by Mecour. M.T. Villar, D. E. Miller, A.W. Fenton and A. Artigues: SAIDE: A Semi-Automated Interface for Hydrogen /Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry. (2010) Proteomica 6:63-69.

• Pressure cells: Our cells were build by ArtBel (e-mail: esloquehayrally@gmail.com)

Our new cell is a combo, a shorter version of the SS that has a transparent insert that can be used for sample loading.