Proteomics Shared Resource

Overview

Leadership:

Arthur Moseley, PhD
919-684-4456
arthur.moseley@duke.edu

Website: http://genome.duke.edu/cores/proteomics

Location: Levine Sciences Research Center B02

The School of Medicine, the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Institute for Genome Science & Policy have collaborated to create a Proteomics Core Facility to provide protein characterization resources for Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center members and the entire Duke Research Community. The Proteomics Core Facility is located in a ~1,900 sq. ft. laboratory in the Levine Science Research Center, and provides capabilities for mass spectrometry based proteomics for protein identification and protein quantitation, including biomarker discovery and biomarker verification experiments.  For qualitative identifications and biomarker discovery experiments (‘omic-scale qualitative and quantitative analyses), the laboratory is equipped with four high resolution accurate mass LC/MS/MS systems, each using a dedicated ultra-high performance nanoscale liquid chromatography systems (Waters NanoAcquity). Three of the MS/MS systems are hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometers (Waters Q-Tof Ultima, Q-Tof Premier, and Synapt High Definition Mass Spectrometer).  The fourth system is a hybrid linear ion trap – orbitrap system (Thermo’s LTQ-Orbitrap). These systems can be used for ‘label-free, gel-free’ differential expression experiments, and also for isotope coding proteomics (such as SILAC or iTRAQ).  For biomarker verification experiments, targeted mass spec quantitative experiments are performed on an ultra-high performance nanoscale LC system coupled to a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer (Waters Quattro Premier).  For these experiments, data acquisition is accomplished using LC/MS/MS with Multiple Reaction Monitoring, a technology which is the ‘Gold Standard’ for clinical pharmacokinetics studies.  In addition, the Synapt High Definition Mass Spectrometer (Q-Tof with an ion-mobility mass analyzer) provides for unique experiments characterizing peptides and proteins not only on the basis of mass and charge, but also molecular shape/size, using a unique ion-mobility cell located between the quadrupole and time-of-flight mass analyzers.