Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Astral Mass Spectrometer

PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal is requesting funds to acquire a Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Astral Mass Spectrometer for the Mass Spectrometry Facility & Proteomics Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. This instrument will support NIH-funded research in areas of cancer, immunotherapy, cardiovascular disease, liver and digestive disease, neurological disease, and addiction. Acquisition of this equipment will provide state-of-the-art research capabilities for our investigators and meet the growing demand for ultra- sensitive quantitative proteomic experiments for limited sample amounts and post-translational modifications of low abundance. This high resolution and accurate mass instrument with Quadrupole, Orbitrap, and Astral mass analyzers exhibits 4-5x faster data acquisition rates than our current instruments improving the sensitivity, quantitative resolution, and reproducibility of measurements. This new advance in technology will speed the discovery of mechanisms underlying disease onset and progression and yield insights into the response to therapeutics. The requested instrumentation is to be housed in the Mass Spectrometry Facility, a University Shared Research Resource Facility, to provide LC-MS/MS based proteomic capabilities to investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina and academic institutions in South Carolina.