This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Michael P. Chiarelli and Nancy C. Tuchman of Loyola University and Pamela Geddes of Northeastern Illinois University will acquire a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS/MS) equipped with an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system. The instrument will support work at the Center for Urban Environmental Research & Policy (CUERP) at Loyola University Chicago. The instrument will be a primary tool for research within CUERP's "Clean Air, Clean Water" program (CACW), in which emergent contaminants found in natural aquatic ecosystems in and around the Chicago area as well as the fate of these compounds and their metabolites will be experimentally manipulated at Loyola's artificial stream facility to determine their effects on aquatic biota and functioning. Additional research projects include: 1) studies to determine the positions of phosphorylation in proteins suggested to be key in triggering malaria, and 2) determination of the structures of organic semiconductors formed by the gas-phase modification of rubrene crystals by dieneophiles.
A mass spectrometer is used to identify the chemical composition of a sample by measuring the mass of the molecular constituents in the sample after they are ionized and detected by the mass spectrometer. Liquid chromatography is a technique that separates chemicals from a mixture or in a solution before they are ionized by the mass spectrometer. The instrument will provide structural and quantitative characterization of the chemical composition of mixtures and reaction products for a core group of faculty users from the Departments of Chemistry and Biology at Loyola University and Northeastern Illinois University.
