The purpose of this application to the NCRR Shared Instrumentation Program is to request funds for the purchase of an LCQ Deca XP ion trap mass spectrometer, fully integrated and optimized for proteomics. This ProteomeX Workstation will be an important addition to our newly formed Genomics and Proteomics Facility (GPF), which is a core facility serving the Biosciences Group at the University of Oregon. The Biosciences Group is made up of researchers from the Institute of Molecular Biology, the Institute of Neuroscience, and the Molecular Evolution Group. Mass spectrometry has become an essential tool in the characterization of proteins and macromolecular complexes, and has become a particularly powerful tool with the completion of the genome sequences for a wide variety of organisms, such as human, yeast, fruit fly, C. elegans, Neurospora, zebra fish, as well as a large number of bacterial species. Twelve major research groups have described specific projects that will benefit from the use of the LCQ and, more specifically, LC/MS/MS analysis of complex mixtures of proteins. The major users will be: Tom Stevens, Roderick Capaldi, Frederick Dahlquist, Brian Matthews, Chris Doe, Alice Barkan, George Sprague, Beatrice Darimont, Bruce Bowerman, Eric Selker, as well as two of our newest faculty Ken Prehoda and Andy Berglund. Minor users will include: Peter von Hippel, Jim Remington, Bill Roberts, Diane Hawley, Eric Johnson, and Karen Guillemin. The sighting of this mass spectrometer at the University of Oregon will make this technology immediately accessible to our researchers, rather than having to rely on long distance collaborations. ? ?
