Johns Hopkins University Mass Spectrometry and Proteomic Facility

Johns Hopkins University Mass Spectrometry and Proteomic Facility provides access to cutting edge technologies in mass spectrometry and proteomics.

The Mass Spectrometry Facility currently has three mass spectrometers, a Voyager DE-STR (Applied Biosystems), QSTAR/Pulsar (Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex) and LCQ-DecaXP. The Voyager is a MALDI-TOF (matrix assisted laser desorption ionization with a time-of-flight analyzer) workstation with delayed extraction technology. It has a mass range of up to 500,000 Da for singly charged ions. The QSTAR is an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer with a TOF analyzer, and can detect masses up to 12,000 Da for singly charged ions. The LCQ also is an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer with an ion trap analyzer with a mass range of up to 4000 Da for singly charged ions. All instruments have high sensitivity (low fmol for peptides) and high resolution. The two high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems (Surveyor HPLC system from Thermo Finnigan and Ultimate/Switchos/Famos HPLC system from LC Packings/Dionex) are interfaced with the electrospray ionization mass spectrometers for microflow or nanoflow applications (high sensitivity) and on-line fragmentation, sequencing and identification of peptides. The facility also has a ProteomeX Workstation (Thermo Finnigan), a fully integrated multi-dimensional chromatography HPLC system interfaced with a LCQ ion trap mass spectrometer, and two dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis equipment, gel spot handling robotics, gel imaging scanners (Amersham Biosciences).

Our facility is equipped to analyze by mass spectrometry proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, lipids, carbohydrates and small molecules from samples in solution or separated by chromatography or electrophoresis. In addition to conventional electrophoresis and chromatography fractionation, the facility will offer differential analysis of protein samples by Differential Imaging Gel Electrophoresis (DIGETM, Amersham Biosciences) analysis and Isotope-Coded Affinity Tag (ICATTM, Applied Biosystems) analysis.