timsTOF Omnitrap (Bruker)

The acquisition of an Omnitrap coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer will allow us to kick-start new projects in analytical chemistry. The Omnitrap couples the most diverse set of fragmentation techniques for mass spectrometry: higher energy collision-induced dissociation (HECID), slow-heating collision-induced dissociation (SHCID), electron capture dissociation (ECD), electron induced dissociation (EID), etc... Two laser ports will enable us to couple the Omnitrap with infrared and UV-vis tunable lasers for photo-dissociation (PD) or electronic ion spectroscopy.

The Omnitrap can perform multiple rounds of mass selection (MS/MS and MSn) which, combined with all the fragmentation techniques, open the door of a myriad of possibilities for dissecting ion structures. Our projects are focused on oligonucleotide therapeutics, nucleic acids structures, ligand binding, and future projects will be devoted to top-down sequencing of longer sequences.

The instrument will also enable projects in the fields of biophysics and drug discovery (characterization of ligand binding sites with native top-down approaches), biopharmaceutical analysis (e.g., antibody analysis, oligonucleotide therapeutics), RNA covalent modification analysis (through top-down epitranscriptomics, which is complementary to more widespread bottom-up approaches), physical chemistry (photoreactivity and gas-phase spectroscopy of ions and ion radicals), metabolite annotation and identification (metabolomics), structural analysis (e.g., natural products discovery), and biomedical sciences (top-down characterization of modified proteins - proteoforms).