St. Louis University has a critical mass of NIH funded investigators whose research would be enhanced substantially by the purchase of a TSQ Quantum triple quadrupole ESI-MS/Surveyor HPLC instrument bundle. To support the ongoing studies integrating genomics, proteomics and metabolomics at Saint Louis University we request funds to purchase this instrument from Thermo Finnigan. The proposed users have appointments in five different departments at the Health Sciences Center, and are involved in basic and applied research in the fields of gene regulation, lysosomal storage diseases, heart disease, renal disease, diabetes, retinal disease, pulmonary disease, drug abuse and pathogenic mycology. The rapid progress in genomics and proteomics has created new opportunities for understanding metabolic processes controlled by macromolecular complexes. Understanding these metabolic processes by identifying the diverse metabolites Produced under different physiological and pathophysiological conditions represents an important new field of biomedical research described as metabolomics. Research in this field should provide both important diagnostic strategies as well as therapeutic targets for the treatment of many diseases. Triple quadrupole electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) instrumentation with an HPLC interface is required for many metabolomic studies. The triple quadrupole is required for identification of metabolites since it can be used for collisionally induced dissociation (CID) of molecular ions which provides structurally-informative spectra. Additionally, HPLC resolved metabolites infused into the ESI source provides both important chromatographic characterization of metabolites and ESI-MS analysis of metabolites which together are often critical for the identification of metabolites. A major deficit of the instrument facility at Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center is the lack of a triple quadrupole ESI-MS instrument. This requested instrumentation will remedy this deficit in our otherwise well-equipped facility.
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