Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry
of Biomolecules
Equipments

Equipments

  

NanoLC-MS/MS strategies contributed a lot to the progress in high-throughput protein identification. Proteomics has then turned quantitative to address major issues in biology, like understanding the effect of various stimuli and drug treatment on cellular processes at the protein level, or discover new biomarkers in clinical applications. The development of these quantitative proteomic strategies have been so far successful thanks to improved mass spectrometers capabilities (high resolution, high acquisition speed, high sensitivity) and to new bioinformatic tools, and should develop further in the coming years.
The Toulouse Proteomics Platform is equipped with modern mass spectrometers and has increased its capacities in bioinformatics over the last 4 years. It is also equipped with 2D gel electrophoresis, robots, various chromatographic systems, and biomolecular interaction analysis technologies.

Mass spectrometers:

Puce NanoLC-ESI-Orbitrap (ThermoFinnigan, IPBS), nanoLC-ESI-QqTof (QSTAR XL, ABI, IPBS), nanoLC-ESI-QTrap 2000 (ABI, IPBS)
Puce CE-ESI-Tof (Bruker, IFR150)
Puce Maldi-Tof/Tof (4700 ABI, IPBS), Maldi-Tof (DE-STR, ABI, IPBS)
Puce SELDI-Tof (BioRad, IFR150)

The acquisition of the nanoLC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap (October 2006) improved considerably the analytical capabilities of the Proteomics Platform and allowed the development of new research programs, in particular in quantitative proteomics and in the identification of low-abundance proteins.
A new CE-ESI-Tof mass spectrometer has been installed (December 2008) to handle clinical research programs for biomarker discovery in body fluids or peptide profiling analysis.

Separating techniques and robots:

2D Gel electrophoresis and matching software (scanner Typhoon and BioRad, IPBS)
2D-LC of proteins (ProteomLab, Beckmann, IFR150, and Ultimate 3000, Dionex, IPBS)
Robotic digester (Multiprobe, IPBS), and Probot (for LC-Maldi, IPBS)

Biomolecular interaction analysis:

Biacore 3000 (IFR150)
Biorad Proteon XPR36

Informatics and Bioinformatics:

Data analysis (GPS, Mascot, Sequest, Protein Prospector, Ingenuity, Protein Center, Melanie, in-house developed MFPaQ software, IPBS)
LIMS (SQL/PIMS, IPBS)
Storage/Archiving system (SAN (10To- 45 To), Local Databank, IPBS)