Hardware for Palaeoproteomics

HARDWARE FOR PALAEOPROTEOMICS

The recently introduced Orbitrap Fusion Lumos Tribrid mass spectrometer is the industry-leading high-performance mass spectrometer and, at the time of writing, the Orbitrap instrument with the best sensitivity, best mass resolution, and fastest scan rate. The introduction of this new hardware for palaeoproteomics research would dramatically increase the chances to identify even older and less abundant proteins. Using instruments with the highest sensitivity will also contribute to minimising the amount of starting material needed for palaeoproteomic analysis. It is equipped with the higher capacity ETD HD fragmentation mode and benefits from very high transmission of ions into the Orbitrap analyser. Compared to the previous vesions of the same instrument, improved precursor storage capacity in the ETD HD mode leads to a larger fragment ion population thereby increasing chances to detect and more confidently sequence even the less abundant ancient protein residues of the ETD acquisition scan. This results in significant increase in sequence coverage of intact proteins. These features make it one of the most attractive analytical options for sequencing of analytes present in very small amounts. Aiming at maximising the number of samples processed per day at very high sensitivities, we will also develop MS procedures to interface the Orbitrap mass spectrometer with the EvoSEP hardware to deliver the essays that will be used by ESR7 and ESR9. This instrumentation is available at both the University of Copenhagen and Thermo Fisher Scientific in Bremen.