NEW SPECTROMETER WILL CREATE A ONE-OF-A-KIND FACILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A University of Arkansas researcher has received almost $1.2 million for the purchase and operation of a powerful mass spectrometer, creating a critical mass of equipment at the University that will allow scientists from all over the nation to run one-of-a-kind experiments.

Charles Wilkins, Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will use the grant from the National Science Foundation and matching funds from the state of Arkansas to purchase a 9.4 Tesla Fourier transform mass spectrometer (FTMS). The FTMS uses a high-powered magnet that improves the resolution of images of molecules and provides more information about their structure.

Coupled with other instruments in the High Performance Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, the new mass spectrometer will be able to offer high-resolution laser desorption mass spectrometry, which is not available at any other public laboratory in the country. Two other laboratories, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory, both have high field (9.4 and 11.0 Tesla) instruments, but do not offer laser desorption mass spectrometry.

"Now we have complementary set of tools," said Wilkins. The 9.4 Tesla FTMS will join an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer with low mass resolution and a MALDI mass spectrometer, which offers laser desorption spectrometry at low resolutions, in the University of Arkansas High Performance Mass Spectrometry Facility. Using these instruments, scientists will be able to explore the structures and compositions of proteins, polymers and other compounds.

These techniques will allow scientists to first determine whether or not a compound will ionize using the low-resolution spectrometry. Once they have successfully ionized a compound, then they can analyze it using the high-resolution instrument to get a clearer picture of the compound’s structure.

Under the grant agreement, the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Ark., will send a researcher to spend a year at the U of A, learning how to use the high-powered FTMS. This will allow the FDA to gain expertise in the use of an instrument important to their work, and will create closer scientific contact between the University and the FDA.

Jackson Lay Jr. of the FDA and Wilkins will study whether biological subtypes of bacteria can be classified using laser desorption FTMS. This research could potentially lead to different ways to detect and characterize bacterial infections.

Roger Koeppe II, University Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will perform hydrogen-deuterium exchange studies of peptides in membranes to examine aspects of membrane transport, which is essential to life.

Wesley Stites, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will study the role of methionine oxidation and reduction in protein regulation. Environmental and biological oxidants create methionine sulfoxides, which may have detrimental biological effects on protein regulation.

And Wilkins will perform high-resolution, high-accuracy studies of synthetic polymers, commonly found in household plastics, synthetic materials and automobiles. Polymers typically consist of chains of chemical units linked together in certain patterns. Changes in patterns can change the polymer’s properties - from solid to liquid, for instance. When companies produce a new polymer, they need to know its detailed structure so they can relate it to the molecule’s function.

In 1980, Wilkins pioneered the use of analytical Fourier-Transform Mass Spectrometry, a technique now commonly used by analytical chemists worldwide. And in 1997 he won the American Chemical Society Franklin and Field Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry.