Project Details
Projekt
High resolution mass spectrometer for small molecules
Subject Area
Medicine
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567207667
High resolution and high accuracy mass spectrometry (HRMS) of small molecules (below 850 Da) is critically important at Campus Riedberg to support our ongoing and future life science research. For example, analysis of natural compounds such as modified nucleosides, HRMS enables the precise identification of molecules by accurately determining their mass. This pre-cision is crucial for distinguishing between compounds that have very similar masses, such as isomers or isotopologues. RNA modification and natural compounds research often involves the study of complex biological mixtures. HRMS can resolve these mixtures with high resolu-tion, allowing researchers to identify and quantify individual components, such as proteins, lipids, and metabolites, even in very complex samples like blood or tissue extracts. Next to these advantages, high resolution and accuracy help in elucidating the structure of unknown compounds. By providing detailed mass measurements, HRMS aids in determining the mo-lecular formula and structure of novel molecules, which is essential in drug discovery and syn-thesis controls. HRMS mass analysers are commonly connected to an ionization source such as MALDI (ma-trix-assisted laser desorption ionization) or ESI (electrospray ionization). MALDI sources have the benefit of being robust in terms of sample salt load tolerance, which make them ideal in drug screening assays. In addition, various compound classes are best ionized with MALDI and would decompose in the heat of the ESI source. Yet, MALDI only delivers a single charge to the analyte and thus molecule weight can become a problematic factor. ESI on the other hand delivers 1 and more than 1 charge to the analyte and thus even larger compounds can be analysed easily. In addition, ESI can be connected with a second powerful analytical tool, namely liquid chromatography. For life science research, both ionization sources are highly valuable. Here, we apply for funding of a HRMS to enable our ongoing research in RNA modification biology. The new instrument is urgently needed because no instrument is currently available for small compound structure determination at high accuracy and high resolution and thus the discovery of novel epitranscriptomic and epigenetic marks is impossible.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
HRMS
Instrumentation Group
1700 Massenspektrometer
Applicant Institution
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
