2D Mass Spectrometry: applying statistics developed or FEL research to proteomics

Speaker:  Taran C. Driver, Imperial College

Program Description:
Mass spectrometry (MS) is the method of choice for the analysis of biopolymers such as proteins. The typical MS workflow involves fragmenting a protein molecule and then piecing together the original structure from the measured mass-to-charge ratio of the resulting ionic fragments. By using statistical techniques developed for FEL research to correlate different such fragments, we have developed a new type of 2D MS. With it, we can access additional levels of structural and dynamical information, providing key insights into e.g. cracking the biologically important ‘histone code’. Some future work is being directed towards application to time-resolved spectroscopic measurements of photoionized biopolymers (e.g. DNA oligomers) and quantum control of biomolecular fragmentation using shaped laser pulses.