The Department of Chemistry at UCSD requests funds to purchase a low resolution mass spectrometer, with a variety of sources, for routine use by all chemists at UCSD. The Chemistry Department has not had a functional mass spectrometer for the last five years and the 15-year-old Hewlett- Packard GC-MS at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is no longer usable because spare parts are unavailable. There is a Finnigan GC-MS in the School of Medicine at UCSD but the instrument is dedicated to the analysis of organic acids and is not available for other types of samples. We obtain high resolution mass spectra from UC Riverside but even the faster turn-around time is not compatible with an efficient research program. The lack of a routine mass spectrometer at UCSD is seriously constraining research at this campus, particularly for those researchers who study relatively unstable compounds. Current research programs of the major users at UCSD include: """"""""Mechanisms of Reactions of Oxygen with Heme Proteins"""""""", """"""""The Mechanism of Action of Phospholipases"""""""", """"""""Antibiotics from Marine Organisms"""""""", """"""""Natural Products Chemistry of Marine Microorganisms"""""""", """"""""Synthesis and Conformation of Peptide Hormones"""""""" and """"""""Alkaloid Synthesis"""""""". Other potential users include several assistant professors with exciting research proposals in the areas of synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry.
