High-resolution imaging mass and ion mobility spectrometer

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560846736

The analysis of natural products and drug substances is a research focus of many working groups at the FU Berlin and other universities and research institutes in the Berlin area. The focus is e.g. on drug discovery and formulation, the isolation and structure elucidation of natural products, the investigation of the biosynthesis and synthesis of natural products and analogs, general organic synthesis, the gain of knowledge in chemical ecology, as well as general analytical method development. Mass spectrometry is an essential technique for modern natural product and drug substance research. A further combination of mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry enables the analysis of more complex samples. The investigation of the spatial localization of substances in samples is playing an increasingly important role in bioanalytics (e.g. distribution in tissues), and imaging mass spectrometers have bacome valuable tools for answering a wide range of research questions. In order to make imaging mass and ion mobility spectrometry usable for research in the Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the FU Berlin and beyond, a corresponding system is being applied for. The requested device should enable a high mass and lateral resolution. A device with these properties, which are essential for our research, does not yet exist in the Berlin area. The requested device is therefore beneficial far beyond the newly appointed professorship of “Pharmaceutical Biology”, the Department, and the FU Berlin. In order to achieve the best possible use of the device, it will be integrated into the “Pharma-MS” unit of the “BioSupraMol” core facility at the FU Berlin.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Hochauflösendes Imaging-Massen- und Ionenmobilitätsspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1700 Massenspektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Freie Universität Berlin
• Leader: Professor Dr. Timo H. J. Niedermeyer