Research Interests and Projects:
Emphasis is placed in
the areas of gas-phase ion chemistry and instrumentation for organic and
biological mass spectrometry. Fundamental aspects of ionization, unimolecular
reactions, and bi-molecular reactions are studied with the goal of improving
the capabilities of analytical mass spectrometry. Attention has been
focused on ionization by glow discharge, positrons, and electrospray. Ion
activation, ion/molecule reactions, and ion/ion reactions have been major focal
areas within the context of the mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry
experiment. Instrumentation for tandem mass spectrometry has also been
highlighted with emphasis on the quadrupole ion trap. Current research
efforts are heavily directed towards relatively large polymeric species
including peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, and synthetic polymers.
Fundamental studies are directed at issues regarding the structures and
stabilities of gaseous ions formed from relatively large molecules.
Information forthcoming from such studies is exploited for analytical chemistry
R&D directed towards the analysis of, for example, protein mixtures, DNA,
and commercial polymers. Current projects include, for example, the
application of electrospray and ion/ion chemistry to the rapid sequencing of
DNA, the study of the dissociation chemistry of multiply-charged macro-ions,
and the combination of ion/ion chemistry and unimolecular dissociation
chemistry for the rapid identification of proteins in complex mixtures.
The group's activities can be summarized on the basis of three core emphasis areas. These include fundamental research in ion chemistry, the development of new tools, and applications of our group's tools and chemical insights to analysis problems. These activities are synergistic. New chemical insights often enable new applications, analytical application problems often give rise to new fundamental ion chemstry questions, new instruments often enable new applications, important applications often drive the development of new instruments, and so on. Many projects often involve all three activities whereas some of the more narrowly-defined projects can readily be categorized in only one of the activity areas.
