Home News Tutorials FP Acquisition Form FP Library About Us Links     Detect & identify biomolecules -                                                                                                   Advance the education & training of 'omics' sciences for high schools         From the laboratory of Dr. Sixue Chen at the University of Florida

Introduction to Proteomics I. Protein Introduction II. Protein Structure III. Protein Snthesis IV. Proteomes V. Isolating Proteins VI. Identifying Proteins VII. PMF Technology

How does a mass spectrometer determine the mass of a molecule?   In a laser-desorption mass spectrometer, pulses of light from a laser ionize proteins (or peptides) that are absorbed onto a metal target. An electric field accelerates the molecules toward the detector. The time it takes for each molecule to reach the detector is inversely proportional to the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of the molecule. In this type of ionization, each molecule usually only takes one charge, therefore the time to the detector is inversely proportional to the mass of the molecule.                   I. Protein Introduction            II. Protein Structure            III. Protein Synthesis            IV. Proteome Introduction            V. Isolating Proteins            VI. Identifying Proteins