7. Project Summary/Abstract
This S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant Proposal requests funds to acquire an Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid mass
spectrometer (MS). This new Orbitrap will replace our current LTQ Orbitrap XL MS and the TSQ Quantum Ultra
MS, both more than 15 years old. This strategic investment will save significant taxpayers’ moneys by replacing
two old instruments with just one to reduce the cost of operation. At the same time, the unique capabilities of the
Orbitrap Eclipse would greatly enhance the research topics which can be analyzed to meet the needs of our
research community, including identification of PTMs including phosphorylation, analysis of glycans, and top-
down proteomics. The new Orbitrap will be housed in the Proteomics core facility, in the Center for Biotechnology
and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), at RPI. If our proposal is funded, this advanced technology will be available
to 30 research groups in the New York Capital Region. There are 20-NIH funded research groups participating
in this proposal, nineteen of these are major users of the proposed instrumentation. Overall, this NIH-funded
group is very strong with R01, R44, R37, R21, RF1, R35, R03 and accounts for 85% of the AUT. Currently an
Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid mass spectrometer is not available in a radius of 150 miles from RPI and will become an
excellent resource in the NY Capital region and beyond. Many of the research programs in this proposal are
related to bioengineering, structural biology, molecular biophysics and biomanufacturing. These programs are
related to many human diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, glomerular disease, spinal cord injury, lung
recellularization, Parkinson’s disease, circadian rhythm, microbiome in human gut, and immune
mechanisms/diseases, cardiac chirality, cancer, cholesterol levels, all of these projects are NIH funded. The user
base spans from users with little experience in mass spectrometry that send samples to the facility and fully rely
on the expertise of the Proteomics Core director, to highly experienced mass spectroscopists. Dr. Zagorevski
will play a key role in designing experiments, running experiments and analyzing the results, making critical
scientific contributions to the mass spectrometry field. Under his oversight, the Proteomics core is one of the
most successful cores in CBIS with more than 90 peer-reviewed publications in the last 5 years. His outstanding
expertise, well-established administration and maintenance policies, commitment to support both major and
minor users, and affordable rates for both internal and external users will ensure success of this instrument as a
regional resource.