Instruments in the Core

Exion 100 High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/AB Sciex API 3200 Mass Spectrometer

LC-MS/MS is ideal for highly sensitive, quantitative analysis of small molecules, metabolites, environmental contaminants, pesticides, and biologically significant compounds.  The instrument is equipped with an ESI source providing “soft” ionization of non-volatile, polar, liquid-phase analytes.  The instrument is also equipped with a gas collision cell and MRM analysis modes which provide structural information and a high degree of specificity when identifying analytes in complex matrices.

Waters Acquity Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography/Waters Q-TOF Mass Spectrometer

The UPLC/Q-TOF is useful for protein characterization, structural elucidation of small molecules, accurate mass measurement, metabolite/impurity identification, metabolomics, natural product identification, and lipids.  This is a primarily high mass resolution mass spectrometer (~5,500 at m/z 556.2) which is used for both nominal and exact mass measurement (< 5 ppm).  The instrument has a lock mass source to correct for drift and to provide very high mass accuracy.  The instrument is equipped with ESI, nano-ESI, and APCI ionization sources.

Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a JEOL double-focusing mass spectrometer

Samples should be low molecular weight (< 500 Da) and volatile. Electron Ionization (EI) and Chemical Ionization (CI) are the ionization techniques available on this instrument. The JEOL GCMATE II GC-MS is a high resolution, double focusing instrument. The applications for this instrument include structural elucidation of organic compounds, mechanistic study of fragmentation under mass spectrometric conditions, molar mass and structural analysis of small biomolecules.

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

ICP-MS is used for elemental analysis often for sulfur species in hydrocarbon fuels, metal porphyrins in crude oil, mercury species in samples, arsenic species, phosphorous and sulfur in biological samples, protein- and peptide-bound metals, chemical warfare agents, volatile organohalides in hair samples, metal containing nanomaterials, and environmental samples.  Agilent 7900 ICP-MS has a high matrix tolerance, wider dynamic range and better signal to noise for elemental analysis.  System can be used for trace level detection, and provides faster analysis of transient signals with 10,000 separate measurements per second.

Sample Preparation Facility

We are happy to assist you with specific information regarding your sample preparation. We have a facility designated to sample preparation and includes the following equipment and protocols.

  • BioSafety Level II laboratory
  • SpeedVac and centrifuge for concentrating samples
  • Organomation Nitrogen Dryer – 48 position
  • Sublimation apparatus
  • 4, -20, and -80 ºC freezers
  • Liquid-Liquid extraction
  • Solid phase extraction using a positive pressure Biotage system housed for 1 mL SPE cartridges
  • Panel of internal standards
  • Quality control samples

Proteomics

  • Trypsin Digest

Metabolomics Analysis

  • Liquid-Liquid extraction
  • Solid phase extraction using a positive pressure Biotage system housed for 1 mL SPE cartridges
  • Cold solvent extraction
  • Panel of internal standards
  • Quality control samples
  • Ultrasonic probe for tissue homogenates