MRI: Acquisition of a High-throughput/High Resolution Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer to Enable Multidisciplinary Research and Education in the South-East Wisconsin Area

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

An award is made to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) to acquire a Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris Mass Spectrometer. This new mass spectrometry (MS) instrument enhances the core analytical infrastructure at UWM creating new research and learning experiences at all levels. It provides opportunities to students who are first-generation and underrepresented in the STEM fields, outreach programs for local K-12 students, science teachers and the public. The enhanced MS infrastructure will create new research and learning experiences and will expand the existing MS curriculum. It includes hands-on training with advanced research instrumentation to undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers. The use of this instrument will inspire STEM interest among students, including women and underrepresented individuals, who are doing research in the labs of the project faculty. UWM’s MS facility has a strong record of industrial collaborations, which will be expanded with the new MS, by providing expert support in applications development, experimental design, and data analysis. Collaborations also play a vital role in financial sustainability of MS facility operations, diversify the scope of applications and projects, and give students hands-on experience working with industrial scientists and commercial problems. Students gaining this experience will be highly competent in their future jobs in a variety of chemistry-related industries. The new MS instrumentation will enable a diverse cadre of early-career and senior researchers at the UWM and regional universities to perform advanced proteomics, metabolomics, and high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis. The instrument will be used for the comprehensive characterization of small compounds like organic molecules and metabolites as well as large molecules like proteins, peptides and oligonucleotides with a high degree of precision and accuracy. This instrument will have immediate impacts on several ongoing projects such as (1) understanding the role of acid ceramidase in ceramide metabolism pathway; (2) identifying proteins and their PTMs that are secreted by the type IX secretion system of Flavobacterium johnsoniae; and (3) identifying and quantifying phosphorylated and acetylated proteins that are targeted by the stress response pathways in yeast and metazoan cells. In addition, this instrument will advance the cross-disciplinary research pursued by scientific teams at the UWM and other local academic and industrial institutions in the fields of biochemistry, microbiology, neurochemistry, environmental chemistry, and biomaterial engineering. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.