NIH Awards UA Nearly $1M for Mass Spectrometer

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $924,995 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grant to the University of Arizona (UA) for a mass spectrometer that will assist various UA scientists doing research as diverse as the atmospheric chemistry on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and prevention of and cures for diseases such as colorectal cancer and Valley fever. "The new Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer gives the highest mass accuracy available and thus adds tremendous capacity to our mass spectrometry resources at UA," said Vicki Wysocki, a UA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biophysics and the lead investigator on the HEI grant. The instrument will be located in the chemistry department and will be available to researchers through the university's Chemistry Mass Spectrometry Facility and its Arizona Proteomics Consortium. A mass spectrometer measures the masses of individual molecules that have been converted to ions (i.e., have been electrically charged). Mass spectrometry is used to identify unknown compounds, quantify known materials and elucidate the structure and chemical properties of molecules. UA is one of 14 recipients of HEI grants, by the NIH National Center for Research Resources, which support the purchase of instruments that cost more than $750,000.