Mass Spectrometry

Our principal tool for characterization of protein damage at the level of amino acid sequence is tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) of peptides from digests of protein samples. MS-MS spectra encode the sequences of peptides and the masses and sequence positions of adducts, oxidations and other modifications. We have two Thermo LTQ linear ion trap MS-MS instruments and related instrumentation for protein and peptide separations for multidimensional LC-MS-MS. We also have access to a wide variety of instrumentation in the MSRC Proteomics Laboratory at Vanderbilt.