This proposal is to purchase a Liquid Chromatography Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometer (LC/CE-MS) system for faculty conducting biomedical research at the Health Science Center of the University of Florida. It will be housed in the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC), which is the central facility for conducting clinical research by facility and trainees of the entire University. Within the past few years, LC-MS and CE-MS have rapidly evolved into indispensable tools for biomedical research. The acquisition of the spectrometer will strengthen our research by providing a reliable and sensitive means for identifying and quantitating molecules of biological interest. We have chosen the PE SCIEX model API 365 as the MS engine with the Perkin Elmer LC and the Hewlett Packard CE for the sample separation. This is the best system currently available and is considerably less expensive than the competing TSQ 7000 system. The research grade LC/CE-MS system requested is not currently available at the University. The University and College will provide a 10% match for the equipment and pay for the operation and maintenance of the equipment for four years, after which the costs will be absorbed by its users. The eleven NIH-funded applicants for this proposal represent a multidisciplinary group of biomedical investigators who require the identification and quantitation of diverse molecules (drugs, drug metabolites, vitamins, endogenous compounds, proteins, peptides and nucleotides) that are often present in minute quantities in complex mixtures. No existing technology other than LC/CE-MS is capable of satisfactorily addressing these overall responsibility for the grant. Dr. Stacpoole, Co-PI, is the GCRC Program Director and the PI for one of the Projects. Dr. Henderson is the GCRC Core Lab Director. He will supervise the day-to-day management of the instrument and provide technical expertise to the users. Dr. Yan, who has a Ph.D. in LC-MS and CE-MS use, will operate and maintain the equipment. An oversight committee has been established to develop policies and procedures for assuring proper use and equitable sharing of the instrument. Demand for the LC/CE-MS among the listed investigators is high and is anticipated to require 92% of the available time. The remaining time will be devoted to developing new projects that clearly require the instrument for their research objectives.
