The Protein Microanalysis Facility provides "de-novo" N-terminal protein/peptide
sequencing, internal sequencing / peptide mapping, amino acid composition analysis,
peptide synthesis and mass spectrometry (ESI-MS, LC-MS and MALDI-TOF-MS).
The ESI-MS allows for the soft ionization of peptides, proteins and phospholipids
to determine accurate masses. Samples can be sprayed in directly
or on-line when connected to an analytical HPLC. The combined use of
chemical and enzymatic methods, such as in-gel-digestion of proteins from gel
or PVDF pieces, together with bioinformatics software and public database searches
allows for protein identification via mass or sequence tags using either MALDI
or ESI. LC, HPLC and capillary electrophoresis are available for preparative
and analytical runs. Two protein sequencers (Beckman LF 3000 ABI
477), an amino acid analyzer (ABI 420H) a peptide synthesizer (ABI 430), a
capillary electrophoresis system (Beckman PACE 5000), an analytical (HPLC
system (Beckman System Gold), an Electrospray-mass spectrometer (Bruker Esquire)
and a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer (Perseptive Biosystems Voyager) are operated
in the Facility. The running of gels and electroblotting for sequencing also
can be arranged.
