This award renews funding for Plasma Desorption Mass Spectrometry (PDMS) activities at the Mid Atlantic Mass Spectrometry (MAMS) Laboratory at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. PDMS, one of several approaches to mass spectrometry, provides low resolution measurements of compounds with high molecular weights (10,000 Daltons or greater). Analysis of ionized compounds in this size range is of particular importance in the analysis of proteins and other biopolymers. Efforts sponsored by this award will focus on improving techniques for analysis of polyionic polymers such as oligonucleotides and phosphorylated proteins. Expected improvements should increase the sensitivity and mass range of PDMS analyses. A variety of collaborative research projects will be initiated or continued. Mass spectrometry plays an increasingly important role in the structural analysis of biomolecules. Information about naturally occurring modifications of proteins, and about the structures of polysaccharides and other branched chain polymers can only be obtained with great difficulty by other techniques. The MAMS facility was established as a shared instrument resource for collaborative and service projects. The facility provides the research community at Johns Hopkins and at numerous other institutions with access to the kind of skilled mass spectrometry needed in many areas of modern biological research.
