Tags: Analytical Seminar

Fossil fuel and biomass combustion releases aerosols into Earth’s atmosphere which strongly absorb incoming solar radiation, contributing significantly to positive radiative forcing (global warming). Given the uncertainty on the extent of this warming effect by aerosols (Alexander et al., 2013), it is paramount that aerosol absorption be measured accurately for translation to reliable climate models. The Aethalometer measures the attenuation of…

The atmosphere is a complex mixture of gases and aerosols that range in concentration from the sub-part-per-billion level up to many percent, and which vary with both time and space.  There are numerous analytical challenges associated with study of the atmosphere, and studies focused on understanding atmospheric chemistry have traditionally required numerous expensive, often custom-built instruments that are cost-prohibitive for many…

The prominence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains has raised concern for the efficacy of currently available antibiotics. Point-of-care utilization of existing drug therapies require strain specific identification of pathogens, which often demands tedious sample preparation strategies and tailored analytical methods. The emergence of multi-omics approaches has empowered scientists to answer complex systems biology questions regarding…

While it is well established that atmospheric aerosols directly interact with solar radiation and indirectly alter cloud physical properties, there remains a sizeable uncertainty in aerosol influence on climate.1 Challenges in constraining aerosol influence arise from their complexity at the individual particle-scale as well as the global-scale. At the particle-scale, aerosols may be internally mixed, being comprised of many different molecular…

In the field of omics, while single omics techniques have proven adequate, it has been observed that using multiple omics techniques in conjunction yields more thorough and informative sample profiles. The rapid gas-phase structural separation of ion mobility-mass spectrometry is beneficial for high-throughput multi-omics. However, implementing multi-omic methodologies with ion mobility separation presents several challenges, including the…

Particulate matter (PM) is a mixture of solid or liquid particles suspended in a gas. Fine particles with diameters smaller than 2.5 mm (PM2.5) present a large human health concern because they can penetrate lower into the respiratory tract causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer. A group of organic compounds previously observed in PM2.5, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are present in a variety of…

Sparse labeling is a strategy for isotopic enrichment in proteins grown in mammalian systems, such as glycoproteins. We have developed a customized isotope simulator that can simulate enriched peptide and protein isotope patterns. Using this simulator, we have developed a software to experimentally determine the abundance of 13C and 15N in enriched peptides and proteins using isotope patterns and mass information from conventional mass…

Atherosclerosis (AS) is caused by fatty deposits, also called cholesterol accumulation in the arteries. The deposits mainly consist of cholesterol, fatty substances, calcium, and fibrin. Atherosclerosis is considered the major cause of cardiovascular diseases mainly involving the heart and brain: coronary arterial disease and ischemic stroke. It is the leading cause of death worldwide, inducing a severe financial burden in the world.…

Characterization of the interaction of the regulator of G-protein signaling 10 (RGS10) and the calcium signaling protein calmodulin G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) are of high therapeutic importance, being the targets of approximately 35% of all drugs currently in clinical use. G-Protein activation upon agonist binding to a GPCR is mediated by the exchange of GDP to GTP in the G𝛼 subunit of the heterotrimeric G-Protein, which causes the…

There is a projection of 10 million deaths per year by 2050 due to antimicrobial resistance, highlighting the need for rapid detection and accurate identification of microorganisms. Therefore, developing fast robust diagnosis techniques will increase the recovery rates of patients suffering from various infections and will lead to significantly reduced antibiotic resistance. The membrane of bacteria contains varying lipid compositions that can…