Presently, many substances, such as cell receptors, hormones and immunological factors, which have measureable bioactivity are available in amounts so small that structural analysis is difficult if not impossible. The proposed research seeks to establish a new techology for the structural analysis of the rare active components isolated from biological systems. The plan is based on combining separation power of capillary zone electrophoresis with the proven analytical capabilities of liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry. Necessary increases in the sensitivity of the mass spectral analysis will be achieved through the use of a finely focused liquid metal ion beam for sample ionization. The primary ion beam will sample directly the effluent from a capillary zone electrophoresis column which will seve as the last stage of sample purification; eliminating sample handling steps which account for a majority of the material losses when working with sample amounts less than 100 pmole. If successful, a two or three orders of magnitude reduction in required sample amounts will be achieved with no sacrifice in spectral quality. Work will be directed toward the analysis of peptides and proteins but advances can be readily applied to other compound classes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM040673-03
Application #
3298447
Study Section
Metallobiochemistry Study Section (BMT)
Project Start
1988-08-01
Project End
1992-07-31
Budget Start
1990-08-01
Budget End
1992-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1990
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
City of Hope/Beckman Research Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Duarte
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
91010
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Davis, M T; Lee, T D (1992) Analysis of peptide mixtures by capillary high performance liquid chromatography: a practical guide to small-scale separations. Protein Sci 1:935-44
Mahoney, J F; Perel, J; Ruatta, S A et al. (1991) Massive cluster impact mass spectrometry: a new desorption method for the analysis of large biomolecules. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 5:441-5
Lee, T D; Shively, J E (1990) Enzymatic and chemical digestion of proteins for mass spectrometry. Methods Enzymol 193:361-74