This proposal requests funds to purchase a PE Biosystems Voyager DE- PRO MALDI mass spectrometer together with advanced robotics and software. This system is especially configured to allow high throughput identification of proteins isolated from ID and 2D polyacrylamide gels and multiplexed genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The robotics accessories include an automatic gel spot cutter, an automated protein digester, and a robot to deposit samples of either protein digests or oligonucleotides onto a MALDI target plate for automated protein identification or SNP analysis. This instrumentation package will substantially expand and improve an existing service for protein identification already provided by the Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory (KFBRL). It will also be the basis for a new service, namely the identification of SNPs. With several genome projects completed or nearing completion emphasis is rapidly being directed towards proteomics including understanding protein function and its control by posttranslational modifications and large scale protein expression studies. A critical feature of proteomics is the need for rapid, cost-effective, and accurate protein identification - which we believe can be met by the requested instrumentation. Similarly there is rapidly increasing interest in the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms particularly as to how these polymorphisms relate to diseases and again, this grant application seeks to meet this critical need. The strengths of this proposal include the extremely wide, diverse and productive user base that supports the KFBRL; the demonstrated ability of the KFBRL to bring biotechnology to bear on the hundreds of difficult research problems that confront these users; the technical and organizational expertise to bring the requested instrumentation immediately """"""""on-line"""""""" and to keep it operating optimally and continuously far into the future; and the extensive expertise and preliminary results that have been gained with a DE-PRO system that was on loan to the KFBRL. These results demonstrate the ability of the requested instrumentation to make a major contribution to biomedical research that will extend to many of the >800 investigators from >200 institutions that currently rely on the KFBRL for state-of-the-art biotechnological analyses and syntheses.
| Wu, Baolin; Abbott, Tom; Fishman, David et al. (2003) Comparison of statistical methods for classification of ovarian cancer using mass spectrometry data. Bioinformatics 19:1636-43 |
