Yale Cancer Center

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Yale Acquires New Instrument to Advance Cancer Research

For Immediate Release
Date : 09/20/02

Contact : Renee Moore (203) 785-2143

The YCC/Keck Mass Spectrometry Resource at Yale Cancer Center recently received the largest instrumentation grant awarded to the Yale University School of Medicine. The $1.4 million dollar grant for the purchase of an FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer will significantly benefit cancer research and many other research projects. The FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer provides extremely accurate mass determinations at high sensitivity. This instrument allows the identification of proteins and their post-translational modifications, which are structural changes that are often critical for normal and abnormal cellular function.

The performance of the FT-ICR should greatly exceed that of other mass spectrometers in the YCC/Keck Mass Spectrometry Resource in three areas: resolution, mass accuracy, and the ability to fragment proteins. For example, the FT-ICR is capable of achieving a resolution as high as 900,000 at a mass of 857 daltons; currently the highest resolution attainable on mass spectrometers at Yale is about 20,000. The 1.5 parts per million mass accuracy of the FT-ICR also out-performs the 5 parts per million mass accuracy that can be obtained on other instruments at Yale. The sequencing of peptides and small proteins benefits from the three methods of fragmentation offered by the FT-ICR versus the one method typically employed by other mass spectrometers.

Dr. Alan G. Marshall, who directs the Ion Cyclotron Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL, was delighted to hear that the YCC/Keck Mass Spectrometry Resource was awarded funding to acquire an FT-ICR. Dr. Marshall said, "the new instrument should prove uniquely useful for identifying the fundamental modifications to proteins that make human cells different in different tissues and organs of the body."

It is estimated that humans may contain 30,000-35,000 (or more) different proteins with only a subset being expressed in a given cell type. Cancer often results in altering the relative level of expression of individual proteins and their modifications. Many predict that identifying these changes in protein expression will allow for earlier diagnosis, more accurate classification of the type of cancer, and better understanding of the disease. One important area of use for this instrument will be to detect differences in protein expression as growing cells undergo the transition from a normal to metastatic state. The extremely high resolution and mass accuracy of the newly acquired FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer will give researchers improved opportunity to detect these subtle changes in the human proteome.

Dr. Kenneth Williams, the Principal Investigator on this grant and the Director of the HHMI Biopolymer/Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory explained, "this grant, which was made possible by the dedicated efforts of the Co-Directors, Kathy Stone and Walt McMurray, other staff of the YCC/Keck Mass Spectrometry Resource, and by the strong support of the twenty-five key personnel at Yale and seven other institutions, will bring a uniquely powerful resource within reach of the Yale University scientific community."

"Analysis carried out on this state-of-the-art mass spectrometer should substantially strengthen research programs which are directed at utilizing the rapidly evolving science of proteomics to better diagnose, understand, and treat cancer, as well as many other diseases," Dr. Williams continued.