With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, Professor Mande Holford from CUNY Hunter College and colleagues Charles Drain and Clifford Soll will acquire a high definition quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) liquid-chromatography mass spectrometer (LC/MS). The proposal is aimed at enhancing research training and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) small molecules; (b) biopolymers; (c) natural products discovery from complex mixtures; (d) combinatorial libraries; (e) biophysics involving intact proteins or enzymatic digests; (f) scaffolds for nanotechnology materials; and (g) functionalized lipids and dyes.
Mass spectrometry vaporizes and ionizes a sample by a variety of methods. The particles (parent and fragment ions) flow into a mass spectrometer where their mass/charge ratios are measured. This highly sensitive technique allows determination of the masses of the particles, their chemical composition and enables one to deduce the structure of the substances in a complex mixture. An LC/MS combines the physical separation capability of liquid chromatography with the mass analysis ability of mass spectrometry. The liquid chromatograph separates a mixture into its molecular components. These components flow into a mass spectrometer where they are ionized into the parent ion and its fragment ions and their masses are measured. The instrumentation provided by this award will provide faculty and students the opportunity to pursue advanced research projects at CUNY-Hunter College. It will be available for use to faculty and students across the campuses in the CUNY system. It will advance the training of many students in the use of this important and widely employed analytical technique and will advance research in chemistry, materials research, nanotechnology and biochemistry.
