UCL School of Pharmacy

UCL School of Pharmacy

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      • Applied Biosystems Voyager-DE Pro Biospectrometry Workstation Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass Spectrometer
      • Micromass Q-TOF Global Tandem Mass Spectrometer
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Mass Spectrometry

The Mass Spectrometry facility is one of the best equipped in the UK’s schools of pharmacy. We offer state-of-the-art instruments including three tandem mass spectrometers with liquid chromatography interfaces and a MALDI-TOF instrument. Research within the facility ranges from basic physical chemistry and biochemical studies through to proteomics, metabolomics and drug-protein and drug-nucleic acid interactions. 

Instruments

• Applied Biosystems DE-PRO: MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer
• Micromass Q-TOF Global: Tandem mass spectrometer coupled with 2D-LC
• Thermo LCQ: Electrospray ion trap mass spectrometer coupled with nano-LC
• Thermo Navigator: Single quadrupole electrospray mass spectrometer coupled to LC

Services

Mass Spectrometry services are offered to both internal and external customers.
We can provide following analysis:

Molecular Weight Determination

A simple molecular weight determination can be used to define the presence of a compound(s) in a sample. We can measure molecular weights as low as 50 Da and as high 300 kDa.  ESI and MALDI-TOF-MS can all be used for this type of analysis.

Exact Mass

Exact mass is used to determine the molecular weight of a sample to within 10 ppm. It can be used to verify a predicted molecular formula of a pure compound or determine the elemental composition of an unknown compound.

MS/MS

MS/MS is used to determine the structure of a compound. It can be used to characterise unknown compounds, confirm identity, or sequence biopolymers.

LC/MS

LC/MS is a very effective technique to combine peak detection with peak identification. Combining chromatography with mass spectrometry allows the chromatographer to identify the chromatographic peak and to resolve co-eluting compounds of different molecular weights. Molecular weight information can identify predicted compounds with better certainty and identify true unknowns by obtaining a mass spectrum or MS/MS spectrum.

Peptide mass fingerprinting

The enzymatic digest of an unknown protein can give enough information to identify it. The protein must however be from a known genome and must be fairly pure, without any other proteins present. Usually the protein is separated from other proteins by 2-DE followed by in-gel digestion. The taxonomy of the organism and the approximate molecular weight, together with the enzymatic digest can lead to the confirmation of a particular protein being present.

Services and Rates

The rates below are for academic institutions. For non-academic institutions, a 100% surcharge will be applied. Please send an email for further enquiries. 

Services	Rate
Electrospray/APCI Mass Spectrometry Analysis	£30 per sample
LC-MS	£60/hr*
Exact Mass Measurement (High resolution)	£75 per sample
MALDI-TOF-MS (Molecular weight determination)	£30 per sample
MSn	£40 per sample
MALDI peptide fingerprinting (including data base search) for protein identification	£45 per sample
LC-MS/MS (and database searching)	Please contact staff
HPLC	£60/hr

*If  method development is required, please contact staff for pricing. 

Submit a Sample

Samples should be brought or sent to:

Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
The School of Pharmacy
University of London
29/39 Brunswick Square
London WC1N 1AX

• A Sample Submission Form should accompany each sample.
• We have a refrigerator, freezer and dry box for samples that require special storage.
• Salts, buffers and surfactants suppress ionisation and need to be removed for mass spectrometry analysis.
• List all salts, buffers and detergents your sample is in, or recently has been in.
• For optimal results, please discuss your project with us prior to submission, certain compounds need to be handled differently than others, the more we know about your system, the better the data.
• We can not run samples that are in aromatic solvents like benzene, toluene, or solvents like DMSO and DMF.
• Electrospray samples are prepared in methanol, acetonitrile/water, chloroform/methanol. We will acidify the sample with acetic or formic acid unless you indicate the sample is acid sensitive.
• Results are normally returned to customers within three working days from receipt of sample. Results are sent to customers by post and/or e-mail.

Contact Us

Tel:  +44 (0)20 7753 5805/4834
Fax: +44 (0)20 7753 5876
Email

Staff Email Links:

Colin James
Emmanuel Samuel
Andrew Weston