IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Intellectual Merit
The Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University requests funds to significantly upgrade the ISU Mass Spectrometry Laboratory through the purchase of a new accurate mass LCMS/MS. The proposed instrument is a cyber-enabled high resolution (12000+ FWHM resolving power) mass-spectrometer with solution-based sample introduction, quadrupole/ion trap precursor selection, and a time-of-flight mass analyzer. The instrument accommodates several forms of atmospheric pressure ionization (API). Two ionization methods, electrospray (ESI) and chemical ionization (APCI) are requested. Photoionization (APPI) may be added in the future.
The instrument will replace a 25-year old magnetic-sector instrument that has become unsustainable, and will provide the new capabilities of extended-range accurate mass measurement of products and reaction mixtures in solution. Accurate mass MS/MS and precise isotope ratio measurements will provide additional structural information and confidence in the elemental formula assignments.
The instrument will be located in the Chemical Instrumentation Facility (CIF), a departmentally managed university instrumentation center which also includes NMR and X-ray Diffraction laboratories.
The instrument will support the efforts of a diverse group of faculty and scientists involved in fundamental research to develop elegant solutions to complex chemical problems. The research interests of Professors Larock, Pohl, Kraus, Verkade, Jenks and Jeffries-EL are discussed in the proposal. These six research groups account for 64% of the total usage in our MS facility. The remaining use is spread among more than 40 other research groups from the departments of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, agronomy, food science, botany, geology, entomology, et cetera.
Broader Impacts
The research supported by the proposed accurate-mass LCMS/MS instrument impacts a wide range of societal needs and concerns:
• Heterocycles and carbocycles frequently occur as the core structure in pharmaceuticals. The LAROCK group synthetic methods allow preparation of these structural motifs under mild reaction conditions. This chemistry shows great potential in the construction of small molecule libraries for biological activity screening.
• Attempts to automate and commercialize solid-phase synthesis of oligosaccharides fundamental to numerous areas of biological research have failed so far. The POHL group strategy for carbohydrate synthesis uses an automated solution-phase approach for the synthesis of well defined sugar sequences. For example, they have successfully synthesised HIV-associated polymannosides and antigenic tetrasaccharides associated with Leishmania, Brucella, and cholera.
• The KRAUS group approach to total synthesis involves first the creation of generally useful methodology for natural product subunits common to a variety of natural products. This has led to a two-step synthesis of arcyriacyanin A, a biologically active natural product; the direct synthesis of euxanthone, a compound with antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity; as well as a direct synthesis of valium, a commonly used anti-anxiety drug.
• The VERKADE group’s fundamental research efforts continue to produce new improved catalytic processes, including those used for the production of value-added products from soybean oil. The practical impact of those processes cannot be overestimated.
• The JENKS group investigates photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in aqueous solution. Their efforts are focused on modification of semiconductor catalysts in order to extend the absorption spectrum into the visible range and thus allow widespread use of the technology using the energy from sunlight.