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Analytical Instruments

CE-MS/MS

 Bruker Amazon Ion Trap & Beckman-Coulter CE

  

Ion Trap Specifications

  • Mass Range: 50-2200, 200-4000
  • ESI source with Agilent sheath flow CE-MS sprayer
  • Sensitivity in the low femtogram range.
  • Fast data acquisition with scan speeds up to 32,000 u/s at full isotopic resolution
  • SmartFrag™ algorithm ensures optimal, reproducible fragmentation for MS/MS library searches
  • On-the-fly polarity switching (delay <80 ms)
  • Fragmentation up to the MS11 stage
  Amazon ion trap

 CE specifications

  • UV-VIS and LIF detectors
  • Temperature regulation controls samples independently from the electrophoresis buffers
  • Sample introduction by all three injection modes; Electrokinetic, Pressure and Vacuum
  • Automated Sample Introduction directly from 96 well plates, 2 mL autosampler vials, PCR vials and 0.5 mL tubes
  • Modes of separation include: Voltage, Current, Power, Pressure and Vacuum
  Beckman-Coulter P/ACE MDQ capillary electrophoresis system

Current applications

  • CE-MS of cationic metabolites (e.g. amines, amino acids)
  • CE-MS of anionic metabolites (e.g. sugar phosphates & other "energy" metabolites)
  • CE-MS/MS of peptides
  • Direct infusion and flow injection for metabolic fingerprinting
  Survey plot (x=time, y=m/z) of endogenous peptides separated by CE-MS

GC-MS

 

Shimadzu QP2010plus

  

Specifications

  • Mass range: 1.5 to 1090
  • Scan speed: 10,000 u/sec
  • Modes: scan, SIM, FASST
  • Ionization: EI, CI and NCI
  • Mass spectral libraries
  • Automatic adjustment of retention times
  • Library search using retention index
 Shimadzu GC-MS

Current applications

  • Identification of "unknowns" based on EI, CH4-CI and NH3-CI mass spectra
  • Targeted analysis of amino acids/amines (t-BDMS derivatives), carbohydrates (TMS derivatives)
  • Quantification of amino acid uptake and metabolism
  • Untargeted metabolite profiling  (amino acids, organic acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, sugar phosphates, cyclic sugars etc.)
  • Quantification of biomarker compounds (D/L amino acids, muramic acid, aminosugars, ergosterol)

 

 

  GC-MS chromatogram
Multi-mode microplate reader
  

Biotek Synergy 2 Specifications

  • Detection: Fluorescence, Time Resolved Fluorescence, Fluorescence Polarization, Alpha Screen/ AlphaLisa, Luminescence, UV-Visible Absorbance
  • Read methods: End point, kinetic, spectral scanning, well-area scanning
  • Microplate types: 6- to 1536-well plates (luminescence 1-384)
  • Absorbance wavelength selection: monochromator (200- 999 nm)
  • Fluorescence wavelngth selection: Deep blocking bandpass filters/dichroic mirrors

Current applications

 microplate reader

GC-MS mass spectral libraries

  • NIST (163,000 compounds by EI ionization)
  • Agilent Fiehn metabolite library (~800 metabolites by EI ionization)
  • In-house mass spectral library: ~200 plant metabolites most with EI, CH4-CI and NH3-CI spectra

Informatics & software

  • Mass spectral deconvolution with AnalyzerPro (Spectralworks)
  • Multivariate stats (OPLS-DA, PCA etc.) with SIMCA-P+ (Umetrics)