Mass Spectrometry Facility - Proteins

Our facility will have the best chance of success if you are able to provide us with at least 1 picomole of protein, either from a gel or pre-purified. Lesser amounts of proteins can be analyzed, but these analyses are labor-intensive and less successful. If you have questions about the amount of material you have available for analysis, please contact our facility staff.

Our facility prefers to receive cored and destained gel slices. On such samples, we will perform an in-gel digest, extract and desalt the resulting peptides, and perform the requested analysis. If you need assistance in gel staining or destaining protocols, please see our gel staining/destaining protocols page or contact our facility staff.

If you do not feel comfortable coring and destaining your own gels, the sample preparation facility in the Vontz Center can provide that service. Contact Dale Blankenship for more information.

1. Our facility accepts proteins for identification and sequence analysis that have been separated on 1D or 2D polyacrylamide gels. While we prefer gels stained with Coomassie blue or copper, we can also handle silver-stained gels.
2. Proteins separated on polyacrylamide gels can be submitted in the following states:
   1. Entire wet gel, equilibrated into water or 1% acetic acid in water. The wet gel can be brought to the facility in an appropriate container or placed in a heat sealable bag with all excess liquid poured off prior to sealing.
   2. Cored gel slices placed in an appropriate container.
   3. Extracted protein(s); we ask that you lyophilize your sample prior to submission.
   4. Extracted and digested protein; again we ask that you lyophilize your sample prior to submission.
3. For all samples obtained from polyacrylamide gels, a photograph or scanned image file of the gel after staining/destaining with the band(s) to be analyzed marked on the gel (or image) must accompany your sample. This information is necessary to determine approximate protein level, to observe relevant molecular weight markers, and to denote the resolution obtained.