Organic Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
Key staff: Professor Tony Mallet
This unit has a set of mass spectrometry instruments designed to give undergraduate and postgraduate students experience of modern applications of this technique. Research programmes in organic and bio-organic chemistry also make use of the methodology.
Modern mass spectrometry is the method of choice for the measurement of endogenous substances in humans. We at Greenwich have been one of the leading units for the past ten years in determining marker lipids for the condition known as oxidative stress . One application has been to seek an early diagnosis procedure for pre-eclampsia.
In collaboration with Professor Lucilla Poston of the medical school at St Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College London (KCL), we have carried out a study of women suffering from oxidative stress and have shown that it is indeed one of several underlying factors.
We have had other collaborations with heart disease and nutrition departments at KCL. A second case study was the subject of Dr Ivan O’Brien-Coker’s PhD research, where we developed methods for determining alternative markers of oxidative stress.
The laboratory has:
- four gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry (MS) instruments, one of which has tandem MS capability;
- four liquid chromatography (LC)/MS instruments, two of which are tandem MS instruments;
- MALDI-TOF instrument (TofSpec-SE).
Free-standing high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrumentation is available, as well as a sample preparation laboratory with automated SPE processor, HPLC-fraction collector and vacuum evaporator facility for multi-sample processing. Small molecule, drug metabolite and peptide/protein analysis can be performed, and the unit has expertise in quantitative LCMS and LC-MS-MS analysis.
