The High-Throughput (HT) Clinical Proteomics laboratory is a mass spectrometry core facility designed to profile large numbers of clinical samples for changes in protein content. We use small amounts (micrograms) of protein from samples such as urine, plasma, CSF, and cell lysates and incubate them with magnetic beads that bind different subsets of the total proteome. We then examine the different subsets of small proteins and peptides by high-resolution MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. We measure the amounts and intact masses of the proteins in the sample and determine which have changed before moving to isolate the differences and ID them. The method works best for peptides and small proteins below 25 kDa and is an excellent complement to gel-based methods such as DIGE.

James LeBlanc, Director

Ravi Vuthoori, Technician