UNC receives one of world's most advanced biomedical instruments for study of proteins

July 13, 2005

By LESLIE H. LANG
UNC School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now owns one of the world's most advanced biomedical instruments for identifying unknown proteins, a device that incorporates the most powerful magnet ever made for research into cellular proteins and DNA.

The magnet is 240,000 times more powerful than the Earth's magnetic field.

Named the 12 Tesla Fourier-Transform Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance Mass Spectrometer, or FTICR, the new instrument will help researchers explore the links between protein structure and function in health and disease. It also may speed the development of novel targeted drugs, researchers said.

UNC now has one of only four such instruments in the world made by Bruker Daltonics, in addition to one each owned by institutions in Japan and Germany and by the U.S. Department of Defense.

A $1 million High-End Instrumentation Grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health, helped obtain the machine. The N.C. Biotechnology Center awarded an additional $150,000 grant to UNC to purchase accessories for the new instrument.

"This is the most accurate mass spectrometer with the highest resolution," said FTICR principal investigator Dr. Christoph Borchers, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics.

"With it we can measure the molecular weight of the protein and we can determine the nature of any chemical modifications to it and exactly where such modifications occur. This is very important for studying protein structure-function relationships," he added.

The product of genes made under the direction of the genetic code, proteins are the basic biological actors in life. As such, understanding their structure and function will increase understanding of the biological basis of disease.

"With high-resolution mass spectrometry we can detect and analyze tens of thousands of peptides within one single run. This is much more comprehensive than what we could do previously," Borchers said.

In the burgeoning field of proteomics, FTICR high-resolution mass spectrometry offers important features for a more complete characterization of protein differences between diseased versus healthy cells, Borchers said.

"It provides a more complete knowledge about the proteins associated with disease and their molecular pathways. This is very important for targeting new drugs."

In the stiff competition for NCRR High-End Instrumentation Grants, UNC was the only university to receive two awards. Along with funds for the FTICR, the center awarded $2 million to the School of Medicine for an ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging scanner for use with small animals.

"The 9.4 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Scanner is likely to have profound implications for a wide variety of research projects," said principal investigator Dr. Weili Lin, professor of radiology and associate director of the UNC Biomedical Research Imaging Center.

Magnetic resonance imaging "is definitely the method of choice for providing superb soft tissue contrast, allowing for investigation of subtle structural abnormalities," he said.

In addition, since the magnetic resonance "is completely non-invasive," radiation effects from repeated measurements are not an issue and longitudinal studies can be carried out over time, Lin added.

Applications Lin envisions for the new scanner include cancer-related projects such as brain tumor and colorectal cancers, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, cerebral vascular and neurological diseases.

"There is no doubt that the scanner will contribute substantially to biological research at UNC-Chapel Hill," he said.

Note: Contact Borchers at (919) 843-5310 or christoph_borchers@med.unc.edu.
Contact Lin at (919) 843-8120 or weili_lin@med.unc.edu

School of Medicine contact: Les Lang, (919) 843-9687 or llang@med.unc.edu