High-end mass spectrometer

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562226085

Over the past years, the need for advanced mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis has steadily increased at the Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine at the University of Regensburg. Working groups from a wide range of institutes, as biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, anatomy, zoology and plant sciences, use proteomics as an extremely valuable analysis method and require advanced mass spectrometric methods to successfully carry out their research projects. An important research focus at the University of Regensburg is RNA research. Within a planned new RNA biology research network, different analytical questions to study ribonucleases and their regulation will be addressed by proteomics, for which a very powerful mass spectrometer is also essential. For example, RNA proximity labeling approaches are needed for RNA-protein interactome analyses. Interactome analyses of protein complexes after affinity enrichment should help to decipher regulatory protein interaction networks. Finally, cross-linking mass spectrometry (analysis of chemically cross-linked proteins) is needed to support the structural elucidation of protein complexes and is also helpful for deciphering in situ protein interaction networks. The protein mass spectrometry technology platform aims to provide advanced methods for highly sensitive and reliable proteome analyses at a high sample throughput. To achieve this, it is urgently necessary to replace the existing mass spectrometer, which is no longer state-of-the-art, with a new high-performance mass spectrometer. Therefore, we apply for a high-resolution electrospray-ionization tandem mass spectrometer with ion-mobility separation and upstream ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography. In addition to its high-throughput capability, an important requirement for the new LC-MS/MS system is to enable a wide range of mass spectrometric proteome analyses at a very high sensitivity and a high level of analytical depth. For example, global proteome analyses will be carried out to identify and quantify proteins and their post-translational modifications from a wide variety of biological samples (cell culture and supernatants, tissue, tissue sections, blood plasma, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, microorganisms, plant samples, virus-infected cells, exosomes). Moreover, ion-mobility separation as an additional separation dimension will enable the highly sensitive detection of chemically cross-linked peptides in complex samples.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Hochleistungsmassenspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1700 Massenspektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Universität Regensburg
• Leader: Dr. Astrid Bruckmann