Lossless interface for ultrasensitive MS-based proteomics of single cells

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Significant increase in the efficiency of electrospray ionization ESI and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization APCI sources in tandem mass spectrometry MS MS will have a profound impact on single cell MS based analysis and the entire analytical field of characterization of proteins lipids and metabolites Almost ionization efficiency of nanoflow ESI APCI sources makes it a unique analytical tool specifically applicable to the MS based analysis of zeptomole amounts of chemical and biological substances We plan to build a platform combining subatmospheric nanoflow ESI and APCI sources and very efficient ion collector to drastically improve sensitivity and speed of MS based identification of miniscule amount of biomaterials harvested from single cells PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE A platform combining an ultralow flow liquid chromatography separation platform with nanoflow electrospray ionization source and high mass resolution mass spectrometer will be successfully used in the analysis of complex protein mixtures harvested from single cells The platform will provide reliable protein MS based identification from samples that contain zeptomole amounts of these proteins We plan to develop a novel sub atmospheric interface providing highly efficient collection of ions produced by sub atmospheric pressure ion sAPI sources that can be straightforwardly combined with gas phase separation methods This will drastically improve detection limits and accelerate characterization of proteins and metabolites from single cells using high resolution tandem mass spectrometry The platform can be easily incorporated into a design of a variety of commercial tandem mass spectrometers