Proteomics instruments
Recent developments in MS instrumentation have revolutionised the biochemists toolkit; allowing unprecedented protein expression profiling whilst at the same time allowing traditional assays akin to western blotting to be performed with unrivalled specificity using SRM assays.
Perhaps the most important impact of mass spectrometry is in the structural elucidation of post-translational modifications, an area in which no other technology comes close in terms of sensitivity, specificity and scale.
Our Proteomics instruments:
Orbitrap Elite™ Hybrid Ion Trap-Orbitrap
The Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Elite MS is a high performance hybrid mass spectrometer combining the novel high-field OrbitrapTM analyser with a dual-pressure linear ion trap, the Velos Pro. It is coupled online to a Dionex Ultimate 3000 uHPLC system for upstream separation of molecules and utilises an EASY-Spray™ Ion Source for ease of sample delivery and improved sensitivity through nanolitre flow rates.
The availability of multiple fragmentation techniques (Collision–induced dissociation, CID; High-energy Induced Collision-induced dissociation, HCD, Pulsed Q dissociation, PQD, and Electron Transfer Dissociation, ETD) offers a new level of versatility, sensitivity and performance for many research proteomic research applications including, but not limited to:
- Bottom-up proteomics / peptide characterization.
- Top-down proteomics / intact protein characterization.
- Post translational modifications such as acetylation, glycosylation, phosphorylation and ubiquitination.
- Absolute or relative quantitation through methodologies such as AQUA, SILAC, TMT or LFQ (label-free quantification).
4000 QTRAP
The ABSciex 4000 QTRAP® MS/MS System is a Hybrid Triple Quadrupole/Linear Ion trap mass spectrometer utilising the powerful Analyst® and BioAnalyst® software, covering data acquisition and processing. Source ionisation is through the reliable and flexible Turbo V™ ion source permitting both electrospray ionisation (ESI) for LC-MS/MS, and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI), which is useful for non-readily ionisable compounds such as non-polar molecules.
This instrument is known for its robustness and stability and it is ideal for Selected Multiple Reaction Monitoring (SRM/MRM) to identify and quantify (relative or absolute) small molecules such as peptides or pharmaceutical products and their metabolites.