Recent advances in mass spectrometry have significantly enhanced the usefulness of this technique in chemical, biochemical, and biomedical research. Foremost among these advances is the development of an array of ionization techniques that permit the formation of analyzable ions without prior thermal volatilization. Thus, previously intractable samples, e.g. high molecular weight compounds, highly polar or ionic compounds, can now be analyzed by mass spectrometry. Along with these developments have come improvements in spectrometer design such that commercially available high magnetic field instruments can be used to analyze the massive ions formed with these techniques. This proposal is for the purchase of such an instrument to be used by a large base of research workers investigating a wide variety of problems in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and medicine. Problems under investigation by the prime user group are 1) host-guest complexation phenomena in systems where complexing partners are designed and synthesized, 2) synthetic molecules of polyintercalators for DNA and proximity labels, 3) the possible role of protein carboxyl methylation in the repair of age damaged proteins, 4) the use of Boron-10 labeled antibodies in a Neutron-Capture Therapy of cancer, 5) the total systhesis of biologically active natural products, 6) synthesis of oligonucleotide probes in the study of the molecular genetics of atherosclerosis, 7) use of transition metal ions and complexes for the elucidation of the mechanisms of biological dioxygen activation, 8) study of the pathways of arginine degradation in Klebsiella aerogenes, 9) polypeptide sequencing and identification of chemical modifications of polypeptides, 10) oxidative cleavage of DNA by complexes of Cu(I) with phenanthroline and its derivatives.
