 |
|
|
Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Facility
The Small Molecule Mass
Spectrometry Facility, directed by John Thaden, PhD, is an
Arkansas Cancer Research Center 'shared resource', funded in part by the Arkansas
Tobacco Settlement Commission. The laboratory also functions as the Metabolic
Assessment Core of a Program Project within the Donald W. Reynolds Department of
Geriatrics. That 5-year Project is funded by the National Institute on Aging and led
by Robert J. Shmookler Reis, PhD. The laboratory is equipped
with an API3000 triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer [Applied Biosystems/MDS-Sciex].
The API3000 has a TurboIon
electrospray ionization source that typically is interfaced with a VP Series high-performance
liquid chromatography (HPLC) system featuring ultra-low
pulsation ADVP pumps [Shimadzu]. Also for HPLC the facility has two HP1050 HPLC systems with
variable-wavelength and photodiode-array UV detectors [Agilent] and a CHI812B amperometric
electrochemical detector [CH Instruments]. For sample handling and processing, the
laboratory is equipped with an Advantage EL freeze dryer [VirTis], a Model 1025 anaerobic system [Forma], an
MX5 analytical microbalance (Mettler), a Rotavapor (Buchi), two N2
blow-down manifold (Organomation, Pierce) and other instruments for specimen
homogenization and sample extraction. We offer our tools and expertise to the
research community for qualitative and quantitative analyses of small (f.w. = 150 to 3000) molecules,
for example, ·
pure and
semi-purified chemical products… o of in vitro organic chemical and/or
enzymatic reactions (synthetic chemistry) o isolated
chromatographically from complex mixtures (natural products chemistry) ·
xenobiotic agents in biological matrices (biofluids, solid
tissue) o environmental
agents (toxicology) o drugs of abuse
(pharmacology) ·
metabolites in biological matrices o ‘natural’ metabolites (steroids, lipids, sulfur-containing
compounds, amino acids, etc.) o metabolites of
an administered xenobiotic agent o reactive species (ROS,
4-hydroxynonenal, malondialdehyde), trapped as stable
derivatives. ·
releasable markers of macromolecular damage and modification o isoprostane, neuroprostane and isofuran
end-products of lipid peroxidation o nucleosides,
bases and deoxyribose residues from oxidized or alkylated (e.g. methylated) DNA o altered amino
acids from nitrosylated, alkylated or carbonylated proteins |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
