Laboratory of Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometry is a modern analytical technique allowing for an accurate molecular mass measurement. Since the first experiment, described by J. J. Thomson in 1912, mass spectrometry has created new possibilities in biological sciences, becoming a modern tool. By mass spectrometry we can obtain a number of important information about the studied substances. High resolution instruments allow for determination of the molecular weight with an accuracy of up to 4 decimal places for compounds with a mass up to approx. 1000 Da (mass spectrometers with a time-of-flight (TOF) analysers are characterized by resolution of 20,000), which often allows for determination of the elemental composition of samples based on their molecular mass. Mass spectrometry almost completely replaced Edman's degradation as a fast method of peptide sequencing and protein identification. It allows identification of post-translational modifications or analysis of endogenous compounds present at very low concentrations. The complementary technique for mass spectrometry is high performance liquid chromatography using nano-flows (nano-LC). Using this method coupled with mass spectrometer provides additional information and allows the identification of compounds at an even lower concentration level. The mass spectrometry is also often used in areas such as environmental protection, anti-doping control, pharmacology, medical diagnostics, biotechnology or recently dynamically developing proteomics, i.e. determination of whole proteom.
Contact details:
Laboratory of Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry
Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow
ul. Smetna 12, room 219
31-343 Krakow
e-mail:
przemyslaw.mielczarek@agh.edu.pl
