UCSF Mass Spectrometry Facility

The National Bio-Organic, Biomedical Mass Spectrometry Resource Center, supported by the NIH National Center for Research Resources, provides both scientific and technical expertise and state-of-the-art high-performance, tandem mass spectrometric instrumentation. The facility is a world leader in proteomic analysis although it also provides a service for small molecule analysis. Significant instrumentation in the facility includes three QSTAR quadrupole orthogonal time of flight instruments, and both an LTQ-Orbitrap platform with electron transfer dissociation (ETD) and an LTQ-FT linear ion trap FT-ICR instrument equipped with the ability to perform electron capture dissociation (ECD). The Center also has a 4700 Proteomic Analyzer MALDI tandem time of flight instrument. Major research focuses within the Center are the analysis of post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation and development of methods for quantitative comparative analysis of protein and post-translational modification levels. The program also continues to develop one of the leading suites of tools for analysis of mass spectrometry proteomics data, Protein Prospector. The current web-based release allows unrestricted searching of MS and MSMS data, as well as the ability to perform comparative quantitative analysis of samples using isotopic-labeling reagents. It is the only freely-available web-based resource that allows this type of analysis.