Project

Discipline

Mass Spectroscopy; Liquid Chromatography; Natural Products; Identification; Quantification; Mass Spectrometer (MS); Rapid Separtion Liquid Chromatography (RSLC); Chemical Analysis

Lead
Lay summary
Lead: The new instrument allows to determine efficiently the presence of small to middle sized molecules isolated from natural sources or from chemical reactions.Background: The Service Analytique Facultaire (SAF) is serving all the scientists present on the site of UniMail in Neuchatel. The services are also open to regional industries and scientific collaborations with external groups have been successfully pursued. The importance of efficient, sensitive and reliable separation and identification methods for selected molecules has increased considerably. At the moment the MS service of the SAF is serving a wide variety of users: chemists, biochemists, biologists, earth scientists and archeologists. Many research project depend on the availability of a good and rapid MS service. The limiting factors so far, where the reduced efficiency of the separation techniques available and the insufficient sensitivity of the MS instrument available.Goal: Purchasing the new LC-MS Triple Quadrupol Mass Spectrometer RSLC-API will widen the offer of the SAF considerably. New research projects will become possible. The major users for this instrument dedicated to the determination of small to medium sized molecules with high sensitivity will be the chemists and the biologists. The other users will certainly quickly also be able to profit from the increased sensitivity and the much higher efficiency of this instrument.Importance: Characterizing and to quantifying small quantities of molecules either coming from natural sources or from chemical manipulations is a great advantage for all cutting-edge research projects. The speed of accumulation of important and realiable data will be much higher. It becomes easy and quick to distinguish promising research lines from dead ends. The importance of this instrument for the ongoing resaerch projects is obious. Once the instrument is functional on site the full potential will be available to the whole community.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.02.2013

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

The Chemical Analytical Service (CAS in English and in French SAF = Service analytique facultaire) has been installed in order to give access to all groups interested to the instruments and to the competence of the engineers employed by the University of Neuchatel. The MS part of the CAS is heavily used by chemists, biologists, biochemists, earth scientists and archeologists. The widening of the number of clients has created new needs for the CAS. To fulfill these needs a substantial re-inforcement of the instruments is necessary. The most important imediate need is to have an instrument with the potential to analyse and to identify small amounts of compounds (typically natural products) with high precision. The proposed purchase of an RSLC-API 5500 will allow to do the crucial experiments for biology, biochemistry and chemistry in house. Together with the MALDI-TOF the CAS will have all the resources needed to give reliable answers to the scientific questions treated by many of the groups in Neuchatel. The collaboration with research groups in other Swiss Universities is guaranteed and will create a real center of competence in MS analytics in Neuchatel.