Thursday, February 5 | 11 – 11:50 a.m.
Classroom Building 170

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) Time-Of-Flight (TOF) Mass Spectrometry

Matrix-Assisted Laser desorption/Ionization (MALDI) was invented 40 years ago. MALDI, in combination with the historically older Time-Of-Flight (TOF) detection of ions, was part of the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the structural characterization of biological macromolecules. In this talk the principle of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry will be introduced and its utility for chemists and biochemists will be explored. MALDI is considered a soft ionization method, and the TOF detector is particularly well-suited for macromolecules. Sample preparation is technically simple without much training. Results from the new departmental MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer will demonstrate the breadth of applications that are possible. Traditional applications such as analysis of high-mass ions, fragmentation studies of smaller ions by Post-Source Decay (PSD) as well as the use of MALDI for imaging will be discussed. In addition, a new technique Δ-TOF will be presented that uses differences in flight time to reveal the surface topography of objects.

PART II:  Poster presentations for undergrads and pizza lunch, noon – 1:00 p.m. in Classroom Building CR 232

Chemistry professors, graduate students and undergraduate researchers will showcase research through posters and answer any questions you may have.