University of Texas

ICMB

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.