5 major users, all NIH-supported researchers in the Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh propose to replace an 18-year old Micromass VG 70G double focusing high resolution sector mass spectrometer in the Department's Mass Spectrometry facility, with a Micromass Q-TOF configured with W-Optics to provide 20,000 FWHM at 900 Da. This new instrument will significantly enhance service to the five major users, and a much larger number of minor Chemistry Department users, many of who are also NIH-supported. The Q-TOF was selected as the best means of both replacing capability no longer accessible through an increasingly broken-down VG 70G, providing newer MS capability (especially enhanced ESI functionality and MS/MS features), and complementing an 8-year old Fisons AutoSpec high resolution, sector mass spectrometer that is working quite well. The newer features on the Q-TOF, the added throughput to the MS facility by acquiring a more robust, modern, and capable instrument, and the modest high resolution capability of the Q-TOF are necessary to meet the increasing demands that include more samples, samples of widely varying functionality, samples of increasing molecular complexity, smaller sample sizes, and increasing use of mass spectrometry by new classes of researchers. In addition, as the Chemistry Department facility is the only source of high-resolution mass spectrometry for the greater Pittsburgh public research community, the Q-TOF will allow us to more readily accommodate the modest sample load from external (to the Department) sources. The proposed instrument will support research of users, which focus primarily on natural product synthesis, synthetic methodology development, combinatorial library synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and chemical biology.
