Proposed here is the purchase of a Thermo Scientific hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap Q Exactive Plus mass spectrometer coupled with a Thermo Scientific Vanquish UHPLC system for discovery and targeted metabolomics analyses. The requested instrument will support a large number of NIH funded investigators including six major users and six minor users with ongoing metabolomics projects. These projects vary in focus from cancer, diabetes, obesity, to age- related eye diseases. Furthermore, investigators from the Diabetes Training and Research Center, the Digestive Disease Center, the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, and the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center will benefit from the new capabilities. The Q Exactive Plus system will be placed in the small molecule Mass Spectrometry Core of the Vanderbilt Mass Spectrometry Research Center. The instrument will be managed by a team of four professionals in the Core including the Associate Director responsible for training users, a technician responsible for instrument QA/QC and maintenance, an engineer responsible for instrument repair, and the PI responsible for instrument oversight. Operational funds will be generated from the Core's standard fee schedule as established by the Vanderbilt Office of Research and as approved by the Core's oversight committee. In addition, an instrument advisory panels will be established and consist of major users, a member of the institution's Core administration, and a metabolomics expert. The primary purpose of the instrument will be to replace 8-10 year old instruments and to provide state-of-the-art sensitivity and overall performance to enhance the research programs of twelve investigators and three major centers.
The metabolomics research community at Vanderbilt University will use the requested instrument to study metabolic pathways of diseases including cancer, diabetes, obesity, and age-related macular degeneration. A large number of investigators will benefit from the enhanced capabilities of the Q Exactive Plus mass spectrometer to discover and quantitate metabolites that are causative or markers for common human diseases.
