Ultra-performance-liquid chromatography - coupled tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465137452

In the present application, the procurement of an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS / MS) is requested, which will be used for targeted, sensitive and quantitative analysis of small molecules in the context of biomedical research. The main topics are metabolism-based studies of innate immunity, neuroinflammation and inflammatory processes within the development of various (tumor-) diseases, the establishment of new biomarkers in endocrinological research and studies on bone metabolism. Furthermore, metabolic studies are planned as part of developmental-psychological research projects with regard to eating disorders. A major focus is the establishment of "Metabolic FLUX" methods, which, in addition to the quantification of specific metabolites, also provides information about the metabolic pathway kinetics. Due to the broad research topics mentioned above, a large number of analytical methods are necessary to analyze the metabolites of both central and secondary metabolic pathways. Such methods refer to sugar metabolism (glycolysis, pentose-phosphate pathway) and energy metabolism (citric acid cycle, fatty acid oxidation) as well as amino acids and biogenic polyamines, adrenal steroid hormones, catecholamine metabolites and biomarkers for oxidative stress. The necessity of these methods is described in the accompanying project descriptions. Regarding the biomarkers of oxidative stress in particular, it is anticipated that a successful development of such a method will generate a broad interest within other working groups at the Dresden Medical Faculty. In order to process the large number of samples from the research projects as described in other parts of this application as well as to develop new analytical methods that are necessary for the successful processing of the research projects, the anticipated annual use of the requested instrumentation is approximately 6000 hours.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Ultra-Performance-Liquid Chromatographie-gekoppeltes Tandemmassenspektrometer (UPLC-MS/MS)
• Instrumentation Group: 1700 Massenspektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
• Leader: Dr. Mirko Peitzsch