HRAM (High Resolution Accurate Mass)-Liquid Chromatography Hybrid Mass Spectrometer

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 463304797

The synthesis and analysis of active pharmaceutical ingredients, drug metabolites, drug candidates as well as the investigation of biosynthesis pathways, mechanisms of bacterial polysaccharide degradation and structural clarification of natural substances, partly in complex matrices, are the focus of the research work of the participating working groups of the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Greifswald. High resolution accurate mass measurement data are required for all of the above questions, which could previously be collected using a hybrid mass spectrometer system operated in the institute. The system, which is no longer operational after 13 years of use, is to be replaced on an equal footing. Since liquid chromatography systems with significantly increased performance (ultra high performance liquid chromatography) have become increasingly established, a such a hybrid system is to be procured this time. The ability to determine the exact mass of analytes with the requested device is complemented by the in-house two single-quadrupole systems and the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, which was purchased in 2020 for sensitive quantification and with which no high resolution accurate mass data can be measured with the necessary accuracy.The above-mentioned works are supplemented on the one hand by cellular assays for the study of biological activity and pathophysiological stimuli as well as other proteomics projects in the field of marine biotechnology. In addition, the institute deals with questions about the transport of drugs in the organism and in model systems, the release of active ingredients from drug forms and resistance mechanisms and virulence factors of human pathogenic bacteria, for which no high resolution accurate mass data has been used so far, but for which additional insights could be gained by exact mass measurements. The requested device configuration is intended to maintain and enrich the research opportunities of the entire Institute of Pharmacy.Research objectives are to clarify the molecular and supramolecular basis of the effects and side effects of potassium channel modulators, identification and quantification of sirtuin inhibitors, drug metabolites and investigation and preparative purification of product mixtures of artificial enzymes, characterization of the "transportophore" of di- and tripeptide transporters, structural characterization of components from African medicinal plant extracts, characterization of synthesis products for the discovery of new procaspase-3 activators, identification of unknown lipid mediators in human immune cells and new oxylipins from Candida albicans, proteogenomics of symbiotic marine organisms and clarification of unknown mechanisms of bacterial polysaccharide degradation.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: HRAM (High Resolution Accurate Mass)-Flüssigchromatographie-Hybridmassenspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1700 Massenspektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Universität Greifswald
• Leader: Professor Dr. Andreas Link