NSF Award
9160545
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the general field chemistry characterization in the subfield of mass spectrometry. The objective of this project is to determine the feasibility of the matrix-assisted laser desorption (MALD) technique on a triple electrostatic sector time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) for the analysis of bio-organic compounds. This particular TOF-MS was developed at CHARLES EVANS AND ASSOCIATES and features high mass resolution (theoretical limit of c.a. 10,000 (FWHM), excellent mass accuracy (ppm range) and special stigmatic ion optics which permit direct ion imaging over a large (200 micrometer) field of view. A Nd:YAG laser will be added to this instrument to study this instrument's suitability to high molecular weight biopolymer analysis. Currently available MALD-TOF systems have shown promising and useful data in this application but suffer from poor mass resolution. The ability to generate data at higher mass resolution will provide significant advances in the biomolecular sciences. High mass resolution MALD-TOF spectrometry could distinguish different adducts or modifications of a molecular species as well as explore the heterogeneity which is common in biopolymers. Should implementation of this technique prove feasible, widespread applications in the fields of protein and peptide chemistry and structural biology in general are anticipated.
