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Theses/Dissertations

Chemistry

Mass Spectrometry

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

High Resolution Mass Spectrometry As A Platform For The Analysis Of Polyoxometalates, Their Solution Phase Dynamics, And Their Biological Interactions., Daniel T. Favre Mar 2024

High Resolution Mass Spectrometry As A Platform For The Analysis Of Polyoxometalates, Their Solution Phase Dynamics, And Their Biological Interactions., Daniel T. Favre

Doctoral Dissertations

Polyoxometalates (POMs) are a class of inorganic molecule of increasing interest to the inorganic, bioinorganic and catalytic communities among many others. While their prevalence in research has increased, tools and methodologies for the analysis of their fundamental characteristics still need further development. Decavanadate (V10) specifically has been postulated to have several unique properties that have not been confirmed independently. Mass spectrometry (MS) and its ability to determine the composition of solution phase species by both mass and charge is uniquely well suited to the analysis of POMs. In this work we utilized high-resolution mass spectrometry to characterize V10 in aqueous …


Deciphering Protein Higher-Order Structure And Interactions Via Diethylpyrocarbonate Labeling-Mass Spectrometry, Xiao Pan Mar 2022

Deciphering Protein Higher-Order Structure And Interactions Via Diethylpyrocarbonate Labeling-Mass Spectrometry, Xiao Pan

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of protein higher-order structures is vital because it is closely related to the investigation of protein folding, aggregation, interaction and protein therapeutics. Consequently, numerous biochemical and biophysical tools have been developed to study protein higher-order structures in many different situations. The combination of covalent labeling (CL) and mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as a powerful tool for studying protein structures and offers many advantages over other traditional techniques, such as better structural coverage, high throughput, high sensitivity, and the ability to study proteins in mixtures. This dissertation focuses on diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) as an effective CL reagent that can …


Computational Approaches For The Multimodal Imaging Of Nanomaterials And Their Biochemical Effects, Laura J. Castellanos Oct 2021

Computational Approaches For The Multimodal Imaging Of Nanomaterials And Their Biochemical Effects, Laura J. Castellanos

Doctoral Dissertations

Nanomaterial delivery systems constitute a group of drug delivery vehicles that have been used extensively in biodelivery. The proper characterization of the therapeutic function of these nanomaterials requires analytical methods to track the presence of the cargo and its biochemical effects. In some cases, the detection of the cargo and biochemical changes are not attainable in the same experiment, and more than one technique might be needed for the proper analysis of the drug delivery system. In this case, separate analysis of adjacent tissue sections is performed by techniques that offer complementary information such as MALDI-MS and LA-ICP-MS. However, the …


Amyloidogenesis Of Β-2-Microglobulin Studied By Mass Spectrometry And Covalent Labeling, Blaise G. Arden Oct 2021

Amyloidogenesis Of Β-2-Microglobulin Studied By Mass Spectrometry And Covalent Labeling, Blaise G. Arden

Doctoral Dissertations

Amyloid-forming proteins are implicated in a number of debilitating diseases. While many amyloid-forming proteins are well studied, the early stages of amyloidosis are still not well understood on a molecular level. Covalent labeling, combined with mass spectrometry (CL-MS), is uniquely well suited to provide molecular-level insight into the factors governing the early stages of amyloidosis. This dissertation leverages CL-MS techniques to examine the early stages of β-2-microglobulin (β2m) amyloidosis. β2m is the protein that forms amyloids in the condition known as dialysis-related amyloidosis. An automated CL-MS technique that uses dimethyl(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl) sulfonium bromide as a labeling reagent was developed and used …


Structural Analysis Of Protein Therapeutics Using Covalent Labeling – Mass Spectrometry, Patanachai Limpikirati Jul 2020

Structural Analysis Of Protein Therapeutics Using Covalent Labeling – Mass Spectrometry, Patanachai Limpikirati

Doctoral Dissertations

Using mass spectrometry (MS) to obtain information about a higher order structure of protein requires that a protein’s structural properties are encoded into the mass of that protein. Covalent labeling (CL) with reagents that can irreversibly modify solvent accessible amino acid side chains is an effective way to encode structural information into the mass of a protein, as this information can be read-out in a straightforward manner using standard MS-based proteomics techniques. The differential reactivity of proteins under two or more conditions can be used to distinguish protein topologies, conformations, and/or binding sites. CL-MS methods have been effectively used for …


Covalent Labeling-Mass Spectrometry For Characterizing Protein-Ligand Complexes, Tianying Liu Feb 2020

Covalent Labeling-Mass Spectrometry For Characterizing Protein-Ligand Complexes, Tianying Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on applying covalent labeling (CL) and mass spectrometry (MS) for characterizing protein-ligand complexes. Understanding protein-ligand interactions has both fundamental and applied significance. Covalent labeling is a protein surface modification technique that selectively modifies solvent-exposed amino acid side chains of proteins. A covalent bond is formed between the functional groups of labeling reagent and protein’s side chain. One of the key factors that affects CL reactivity is a side chain’s solvent accessibility. Ligand binding protects residues on the protein surface from being labeled, and residues involved in ligand binding can be indicated via decreases in labeling extents. The …


Novel Mass Spectrometry Methods For The Analysis Of Covalent And Non-Covalent Protein Structures And Their Influence On The Functions Of Therapeutic Proteins, Jake Pawlowski Jul 2018

Novel Mass Spectrometry Methods For The Analysis Of Covalent And Non-Covalent Protein Structures And Their Influence On The Functions Of Therapeutic Proteins, Jake Pawlowski

Doctoral Dissertations

Biotherapeutics consist of biopolymers (proteins, polysaccharides, DNA, and RNA) that are used to treat a wide range of conditions from cancer to autoimmune disease to enzyme replacement. In recent years biotherapeutics have experience tremendous growth due to advances in technology and our understanding of human biology. They are very important to modern medicine due to their ability to treat diseases which are unable to be treated with small molecule-based drugs. Unlike small molecule drugs which are synthetically produced, biotherapeutics are expressed inside cells. Produced biotherapeutics are not made up of a single homogenous population but instead a population of highly …


Photofragment Imaging Fast Ion Beams, Michael D. Johnston Jr. Jul 2018

Photofragment Imaging Fast Ion Beams, Michael D. Johnston Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Metal-containing ions have been the subject of much research due to their roles in catalytic activation and small cluster chemistries. However, they can be difficult to study both experimentally and theoretically, and new approaches are needed. The goal of the research described here is to characterize the electronic structures and thermodynamics of metal-containing ions using gas-phase spectroscopy experiments performed on a powerful new instrument. Presented in the following chapters are the details of a recently built velocity map imaging mass spectrometer that is capable of imaging the photofragments of trap-cooled (≥7K) ions produced in a versatile ion source. This instrument …


The Application Of Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange And Covalent Labeling Coupled With Mass Spectrometry To Examine Protein Structure, Nicholas B. Borotto Mar 2016

The Application Of Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange And Covalent Labeling Coupled With Mass Spectrometry To Examine Protein Structure, Nicholas B. Borotto

Doctoral Dissertations

Thorough insight into a protein’s structure is necessary to understand how it functions and what goes wrong when it malfunctions. The structure of proteins, however, is not easily analyzed. The analysis must take place under a narrow range of conditions or risk perturbing the very structure being probed. Furthermore, the wide diversity in size and chemistry possible in proteins significantly complicates this analysis. Despite this numerous methods have been developed in order to analyze protein structure. In this work, we demonstrate that mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques are capable of characterizing the structure of particularly challenging proteins. This is done through …


Studying Nanoparticle/Cell And Nanoparticle/Biosurface Interaction With Mass Spectrometry, Singyuk Hou Nov 2015

Studying Nanoparticle/Cell And Nanoparticle/Biosurface Interaction With Mass Spectrometry, Singyuk Hou

Masters Theses

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been used widely in various fields ranging from biomedical applications to life science due to their highly tunable properties. It is essential to understanding how NPs interact with biological systems of interest, therefore, analytical platforms to efficiently track NPs from cell to animal level are essential. In this thesis, laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed and applied to quantify NP/cell and NP/biological surface interactions. These two methods provide fast, label-free and quantitative analysis. New capability of LDI-MS to differentiate cell surface-bound and internalized NPs were established and ICP-MS …


Mass Spectrometric Characterization And Imaging Of Nanoparticles In Biological Samples, Bo Yan Aug 2014

Mass Spectrometric Characterization And Imaging Of Nanoparticles In Biological Samples, Bo Yan

Doctoral Dissertations

Nanoparticles (NPs) are being investigated widely for use in biomedical applications such as imaging, drug delivery, and cancer therapy due to their small size and readily tunable properties. The ability to accurately characterize NPs and monitor their spatial distributions is highly desirable for effective use of NPs and evaluation of their potential adverse environmental, health, and safety effects. In this dissertation, a simple, fast, and sensitive method based on laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) to characterize and track NPs in biological systems has been developed. This method is especially well suited for characterizing core-shell structured NPs, such as quantum dots …


Development Of Mass Spectrometry-Based Methods For Quantitation And Characterization Of Protein Drugs: Transferrin As A Model Drug Delivery Vehicle, Shunhai Wang Sep 2013

Development Of Mass Spectrometry-Based Methods For Quantitation And Characterization Of Protein Drugs: Transferrin As A Model Drug Delivery Vehicle, Shunhai Wang

Open Access Dissertations

In the last two decades, protein drugs have enjoyed a rapid growth and achieved a tremendous success in treating human diseases. However, the presence of physiological barriers greatly impedes the efficient delivery of such unconventional large molecule drugs, and therefore limits their clinical utility. An elegant way to address this challenge takes advantage of certain endogenous transporter proteins, such as human transferrin (Tf), whose ability to traverse physiological barriers has been extensively exploited. However, methods to investigate Tf-based drug delivery remained insufficient and unsatisfactory until recent development of quantitative mass spectrometry (MS). Hereby, MS-based methods have been developed and validated …


Structural Characterization Of The Pre-Amyloid Oligomers Of Β-2-Microglobulin Using Covalent Labeling And Mass Spectrometry, Vanessa Leah Castillo Mendoza Sep 2010

Structural Characterization Of The Pre-Amyloid Oligomers Of Β-2-Microglobulin Using Covalent Labeling And Mass Spectrometry, Vanessa Leah Castillo Mendoza

Open Access Dissertations

The initial steps involved in the assembly of normally soluble proteins into amyloid fibrils remain unclear, yet over 20 human diseases are associated with proteins that aggregate in this manner. Protein surface modification is a potential means of mapping the interaction sites in early oligomers that precede amyloid formation. This dissertation focuses on the use of covalent labeling combined with mass spectrometry to elucidate the structural features of Cu(II)-induced β-2-microglobulin (β2m) amyloid formation. An improved covalent modification and MS-based approach for protein surface mapping has been developed to address the need for a reliable approach that ensures protein structural integrity …


Developing Novel Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Esi Ms) Techniques To Study Higher Order Structure And Interaction Of Biopolymers, Agya K. Frimpong Sep 2009

Developing Novel Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Esi Ms) Techniques To Study Higher Order Structure And Interaction Of Biopolymers, Agya K. Frimpong

Open Access Dissertations

Mass spectrometry has enjoyed enormous popularity over the years for studying biological systems. The theme of this dissertation was to develop and use mass spectrometry based tools to solve five biologically oriented problems associated with protein architecture and extend the utility of these tools to study protein polymer conjugation. The first problem involved elucidating the false negatives of how proteins with few basic residues, forms highly charged ions in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS). This study showed that the unfolding of polypeptide chains in solution leads to the emergence of highly charged protein ions in ESI MS mass spectra, …