Biological Mass Spectrometry and Glycomics Facility

Dr. John Kelly
Senior Research Officer, Genomics and Proteomics
NRC Institute for Biological Sciences
100 Sussex Drive, 2051
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Phone (613) 998-5263
Fax (613) 952-9092
John.Kelly@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Dr. Jianjun Li
Research Officer, Glycoanalysis
NRC Institute for Biological Sciences
100 Sussex Drive
Sussex Room 3118
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Phone (613) 990-0558
Fax (613) 952-9092
Jianjun.Li@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

The facility, consisting of five laboratories, provides core proteomics and biological mass spectrometry support for NRC-IBS’s research programs, for cross-institutional initiatives such as the GHI as well as for other internal and external clients. Research within the facility focuses on developing leading-edge analytical technologies in support of the needs of the Institute, the NRC and our clients. The Proteomics laboratory is equipped with the following major equipment: LTQ linear ion trap mass spectrometer equipped with electron transfer dissociation; Q-TOF Ultima quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer; Q-TOF II quadrupole time-offlight mass spectrometer; M@LDI MALDI-TOFMS and 3 nanoHPLC instruments. The facility also has a well equipped protein separations laboratory and a computer lab housing a large Mascot database searching engine accessible to all NRC staff.

The Gycomics laboratory is equipped with a new state of the art MALDI TOF/TOF acquired in 2007 for optimal sensitivity for glycan analysis and molecular imaging.

This equipment is shared with NRC-INMS. Four other mass spectrometers acquired from (1999 to 2005) are also geared towards specialized analysis of glycoconjugates and service to clients.

Mass spectrometry is a rapidly developing and essential tool. In 2009, the Institute The institute installed an LTQ-Orbitrap XL hybrid mass spectrometer to provide high throughput capability to meet client needs in proteomics.

Equipments

• The AB/MDS Sciex 4000 QTRAP is a hybrid instrument that combines the best features of triple quadrupole and ion trap mass spectrometers. The instrument has significantly greater sensitivity and resolving power compared to conventional triple quadrupole mass spectrometers thanks to the substitution of the third quadrupole with a linear ion trap. The Q-Trap is also capable of MS3 scanning (multiple stages of tandem mass spectrometry) which is essential for analyzing complex glycans and protein post translational modifications.  This instrument retains all of the important scanning features of triple quadrupoles (i.e., precursor ion scanning, neutral loss scanning, etc.) which can be used to selectively detect analytes with specific features (i.e., sialylation, phosphorylation, etc.) and will facilitate in vivo analyses.
• The AB/MDS Sciex API 3000 is a research grade triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. By monitoring diagnostic ions, we can quickly monitor and deduce modifications in a protein. Coupled with capillary electrophoresis, it is the main instrument used for routine carbohydrates including LPS and surface antigens.
• The 4800 MALDI-TOF/TOF housed at NRC-IBS, will be shared equally, primarily by researchers from the NRC-IBS Glycoanalysis facility and the NRC-INMS Chemical Metrology Group. The instrument is an effective analytical technology for glycomics studies, for rapid identification of micro-organisms by 2D mass fingerprinting and for molecular imaging of tissues, applications that will further advance NRC-IBS strategic directions.
• The Varian Saturn 2000 GC/MS, a "Walk Up" instrument, is primarily used in sugar composition analysis and sugar linkage analysis.
• The AB Voyager Elite MALDI TOF, the "work horse" of the group, is used as a "service instrument" for screening peptide synthesis, for checking the purity of extracted proteins or carbohydrates, and to characterize polymers.
• More in depth and high-throughput analysis is performed using the QTOF 2, QTOF Ultima by Waters and LTQ-Orbitrap by Thermo Scientific in the Proteomics group.

Related Information

Institutes:

• NRC Institute for Biological Sciences