Research activities in the Dodds laboratory are concentrated on the conception and implementation of mass spectrometry based strategies for the analysis of biomolecules. More specifically, the group is focused on the development of new capabilities for carbohydrate and glycoconjugate analysis, with particular emphasis on the site-specific determination of protein glycosylation and on the distinction of carbohydrate isomers. Additional areas of study include the structural interrogation of noncovalent biomolecular assemblies and the development of novel approaches for metabolomic analysis. In each of these fields, the group combines a unique body of expertise with leading-edge capabilities in mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry, and ion mobility spectrometry to address longstanding bioanalytical challenges.
Glycoproteomic Analysis
The dissociation of glycopeptides in MS/MS is complex and nuanced. In order to maximize the analytical value of this data, we are studying:
- The effects of charge carrier and charge state on glycopeptide fragmentation
- How the chemistry of specific precursor ions governs their collision-induced dissociation and electron transfer dissociation
- How ion mobility can contribute to an understanding of the precursor ion gas-phase structures that lead to certain dissociation behaviors
Structural Biology
Non-covalent protein complexes can retain features of their solution structures as gas-phase ions. We are exploring:
- The interplay between solution structure, gas-phase structure, and gas-phase dissociation behavior of protein complexes
- New approaches for mapping studying inter- and intramolecular interaction domains in proteins and protein complexes
- Approaches to obtain subunit sequence information directly from gas phase protein complexes
