Techniques & Tools Mass Spectrometry

This week’s Mass Spec News

Visualizing protein-folding complexes with cryo-ET and MS, talking representation with Rena Robinson, a new QuEChERS-based UHPLC-MS/MS and more…

09/06/2024 | 2 min read | News

Chaperonins are protein-folding complexes that play a critical role in maintaining cellular function – and they are associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

To better understand their function, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the University Medical Center Göttingen combined cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) with single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and quantitative mass spectrometry – successfully visualizing and analyzing GroEL–GroES complexes complexes in their natural environment within E. coli cells.

“The ability to visualize these complexes directly in the bacterium instead of only in the test tube represents a major advance in this field and has only recently become possible, as this chaperonin complex is only 14 nanometers wide,” explained Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego, corresponding author, in a press release.

Researchers from China introduce a new breathomics method using high-pressure photon ionization-TOF-MS – that could improve TB detection in diabetics, achieving 93 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity. Link

Combination of machine learning FT-ICP-MS and TOF-MS reveals that the Kubessa method – a brewing practice – reduces aging-related compounds and sulfur-containing lipids in beer. Link

Fabian Dick and his colleagues develop QuEChERS-based UHPLC-MS/MS method to analyze 24 mycotoxins in cereals, finding that over 95 percent of samples contained at least one toxin. Link

Proteome analysis using SWATH-MS successfully identifies seven proteins predicting pembrolizumab response in lung cancer patients. Link

“Many years ago, I was applying for a student fellowship where one of the requirements was that you had to be from an underrepresented minority group. It was based on merit, but that was one of the criteria. I asked a faculty member to write a letter of recommendation for me and they refused because they wanted to validate me against the level of my entire class – despite the fact I was doing really well anyway. I remember being really hurt and confused – I was the only one in the whole class who was eligible,” Renã Robinson explained in 2020.

The inclusivity advocate – who was recently named one of our Human Health Heroes – was featured as part of our “Holding a Mirror to Analytical Science" cover feature.

^{Illustration Credit: Jonathan Wagner, MPI of Biochemistry}

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