The Mass Spectrometry facility brings together an interdisciplinary group of UCSC researchers from Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology. The facility houses a VG 7070-E and a QUATTRO II Mass Spectrometer. Along with resources available to UCSC, the W. M. Keck Foundation was instrumental in providing initial funding for the facility.

The Mass Spec facility enables UCSC researchers to continue advances in the understanding and control of human diseases, including the discovery of new molecular structures directly relevant to understanding and treating diseases as diverse as cancer, AIDS, and bacterial infections. UCSC researchers are also involved in the discovery, design, and manipulation of biologically relevant molecules, and the development of new techniques to probe the behavior of macromolecules central to fundamental biological functions.

Some ongoing studies include:

Characterization of synthetic products.
Understanding the potein sequence requirements of beta sheet formation.
Answering the fundamental question of how proteins fold into their functional structures.
Investigation of exotic marine sponge natural products, with the overall goal of discovering new bioactive substances having chemotherapeutic value.

SPECTROMETERS
- VG7070-E
  This medium performance mass spectrometer has a perfomance range at 6kV of 1-2000 amu. It has EI/CI/FAB Sources, Peak Matching as well a Mass Measuement capability into the Data System. The Mass Resolution is continuously variable up to 10,000 (10% valley)
- Quattro II
  An "open access" spectrometer, the Quattro II is a flexible triple quadrupole system in all modes of MS and MS/MS analysis. The inlet system is either Electrospray or APcI. An HPLC/MS interface/autosampler system allows for the analysis of labile compounds at high sensitivity with a mass range of 2-4000 Da.

Mass Spec Links

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