Professor David V. Dearden of Brigham Young University is supported by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI) Program in the Division of Chemistry and the Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering Program to develop a technique to detect and characterize the shape of large molecules, commonly found in living systems and molecular-size devices. Such information is currently only available using highly specialized and expensive instruments. The new approach will require only minimal, inexpensive modifications of commercially-available instruments, thus making such measurements accessible to a wide array of scientists. The availability of this technique on affordable mass spectrometers is allowing the characterization of supramolecular assemblies and the study of peptide folding and protein conformational changes in fields such as supramolecular chemistry and biomolecular science. The results are expected to facilitate biomedical research and the design and manufacture of molecular-size devices, such as molecular switches and memory storage architectures.
The method Dearden is developing is known by the acronym CRAFTI, cross sectional areas by Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance. It is used to characterize the shapes of supramolecular systems and large biomolecules through measurement of their collision cross sections in the gas phase. These measurements are accomplished by monitoring the signal due to the collisions of the ions with the molecules of a neutral background gas in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICR/MS). User-friendly software for CRAFTI data analysis is also being developed as part of this project, facilitating the transfer of the CRAFTI technology to the broader user community of FTICR and, potentially, to Orbitrap mass spectrometers.
In the course of this research, graduate students are being trained in state-of-the-art mass spectrometric and analytical techniques. Dearden is recruiting talented undergraduate students and involving them in the research in preparation for future graduate studies. Results from this work are included in annual presentations to the general public as part of National Chemistry Week.
