Mass Spectrometric Analytical Collaborations with Members of the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center

Project Summary I am the Director of the Analytical Biochemistry Shared Resource of the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center (MCC), a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. The shared resource has emerged as a leading academic mass spectrometry laboratory, acting as an extension of the MCC's Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program (CCP), and providing critical analytical services to CCP members who account for a large majority of the analysis performed in the facility. There are currently 16 NCI-funded projects involving nine CCP members who use the mass spectrometry facility. The integration of the Analytical Biochemistry Shared Resource and the CCP is such that the mass spectrometry laboratory staff, through extensive training and consultation with group members and collaboration with principal investigators, functions as the analytical component of many of the research groups. The scientific goals of the CCP are to understand the chemical and molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. The relevance of this knowledge to public health is through the ability to use it to develop and evaluate practical methods for cancer prevention. I am an integral part of the CCP through extensive consultation and collaboration with the members regarding their mass spectrometry-based analyses, as well as by working very closely with their research groups. I have daily interactions with the investigators and routinely attend laboratory group meetings, contribute to writing manuscripts, and participate in the CCP Seminar Series and the Translational Biomarkers Working Group. The need for my consultation and collaboration with members of the CCP regarding advanced analytical measurement, as well as day-to-day training and oversight of members of their research groups, has been growing steadily with the increasing analytical capabilities of the laboratory and increasing dependency of the users on mass spectrometric analysis to advance their research. There is an ongoing need to continue to advance the analytical capabilities of the facility as the field of biomedical mass spectrometry continues to grow and the research goals of the program members evolve. An external source of financial support would give me the independence and freedom to focus on collaborative efforts with the NCI-funded members of the CCP to provide them with the guidance and knowledge to harness the advanced analytical capabilities of the mass spectrometry laboratory.