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Yu Xia
Assistant Professor—Analytical Chemistry
Email: yxia@purdue.edu
Phone: 765-494-1142
Office: BRWN 3131C
For Professor Xia's individual Home Page click here.
The research in our group aims at developing new methods and instrumentation of mass spectrometry for characterizing biomolecules and studying their gas-phase ion chemistry. Our research focuses include:
Ion formation Ionization is an essential step in mass spectrometry, and it has a significant impact on relating the properties of gas-phase ions to the original molecules of interest. We have developed a means to manipulate the degree of ion activation/fragmentation during electrospray ionization (ESI), which can be used to investigate the underlying principles of ESI, including dynamics and energetics of the process, as well as the nature of analyte-solvent interactions.
Ion chemistry Radicals play important roles in biological systems. We are interested in developing a gas-phase approach to study modifications of biomolecules initiated by free radicals. The research includes developing instrumentation to enable gas-phase ion/radical reactions and systematic investigations on reaction phenomena, mechanisms, and kinetics.
Ion structure We are also interested in developing a suite of gas-phase methods within the context of tandem mass spectrometry to obtain ion structural information of proteins, lipids, and oligosaccharides. The emphasis includes elucidation of primary and high order structures, characterization of structure motifs, and differentiation of stereo isomers.
Education
B.S., 1999, Lanzhou University; M.S., 2002, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica; Ph.D., 2006, Purdue University.Recognitions
- American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award, 2013
Selected Publications
- N. Na, Y. Xia, Z. Zhu, X. Zhang, R. G. Cooks, Birch Reduction of Benzene in a Low-Temperature Plasma. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2009 , 48, 2017-2019.
- Y. Xia, H. Han, S. A. McLuckey, Activation of Intact Electron Transfer Products of Polypeptides and Proteins in Cation Transmission Mode Ion/Ion Reactions. Anal. Chem. 2008 , 80, 1111 -1117.
- Y. Xia, Z. Ouyang, R.G. Cooks, Peptide Fragmentation Assisted by Surfaces Treated with a Low-Temperature Plasma in NanoESI. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008 , 47, 8646-8649.
- Y. Xia, B. A. Thomson, S. A. McLuckey, Bi-directional Ion Transfer between Quadrupole Arrays: MSn Ion/Ion Reaction Experiments on a Quadrupole/Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometer. Anal. Chem. 2007 , 79, 8199 – 8206.