With this award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities Multiuser Program (CRIF:MU), Professor Jorge L. Gardea-Torresdey and colleague Katja Michael from University of Texas at El Paso will acquire a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer (LCMS) with two exchangeable soft ionization devices, namely a direct analysis in real time (DART) and an electrospray ionization (ESI). The spectrometer will be used at a service facility at Department of Chemistry and support additional researchers from other departments and programs such as Geology, Environmental Science and Engineering, Health Sciences, Biology, and Physics. The instrument will also serve students from UTEP and faculty and students of the nearby El Paso Community College and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Major research projects describe studies of phytochelatins, phytochelatins-related compounds and phytosiderophores in the uptake and transport of metals in desert plants, photochemical synthesis of glycopeptides and (glyco)peptide-alpha-thioesters, human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organometallic chemistry, supramolecular materials in aqueous systems and development of small molecule chaperone analogues for alleviating misfolding-related diseases.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a technique used to probe intimate structural details and to obtain the molecular compositions of a vast array of organic, bioorganic, and organometallic molecules. This research is also expected to have a positive effect on the environment. MS is one of the fastest growing and most widely used analytical instrumentation techniques. Because of this, it is important for graduate and undergraduate students to be exposed to the technique and this instrument will be an integral part of teaching as well as research.
