Rian Griffiths Email and Phone Number

Liquid-microjunction surface-sampling is the main focus of this work. The project has three main themes: o coupling of Liquid extraction surface analysis (LESA) to high-asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) o the development of native LESA methods for the analysis of non-covalent protein complexes from solid substrates o the implementation of flowprobe mass spectrometry for rapid ambient imaging of proteinsCoupling of ion mobility (FAIMS) separation to LESA has been shown to reduce chemical noise, improve signal-to-noise ratios and afford molecular separation. In this way increased numbers of protein species are detected from thin tissue sections and bacterial colonies, lipid species that are masked by highly abundant haemoglobin signals can be monitored from dried blood spots and improved protein imaging can be achieved. Contact-LESA, where the pipette tip contacts the sample surface, has been shown to be beneficial in native LESA experiments. Native LESA methods for the anlysis of non-covalent protein complexes from dried blood spots and thin tissue sections have been developed and has been demonstrated for the analysis of large protein complexes, up to ~800 kDa. Separately, Flowprobe mass spectrometry has been evaluated for high throughput ambient mass spectrometry imaging of intact proteins. LESA FAIMS and Flowprobe experiments are conducted on a LTQ Orbitrap Velos/Elite mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Native LESA MS of intact proteins and complexes are performed on a Synapt G2S mass spectrometer (Waters) mass spectrometer.