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Posts Tagged ‘Mass spectrometry’

Applying Your MALDI Matrix Like a Boss

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (or simply, MALDI) is a type of mass spectrometry method. If you are new to mass spectrometry, check out our excellent primers, titled How Does Mass Spec Work and Get Out of Western Blot Hell: An intro to Mass Spec. Basically, however, mass spectrometry allows you to measure, sort, and quantify small…

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Proteomics and Good Mass Spectrometry Data

It is currently possible to analyze thousands of proteins in a single sample using mass spectrometry (MS) and a database of predicted protein sequences, referred to as ‘bottom-up’ proteomics. With this technology, you can measure protein levels and interactions. Also, you can examine changes in post-translational modifications (PTMs) and isoforms (in an unbiased manner). Working with…

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ChemDraw: a Versatile Molecule Sketching Tool for (Bio)Chemists

Have you ever wondered how to make professional, easy-to-understand figures of molecules for presentations or publications? While several programs exist for this purpose, ChemDraw is like the Swiss Army knife of chemical sketching programs that most chemists and journals use to prepare figures. Beyond the ability to create chemically accurate and legible figures, ChemDraw can…

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An Introduction to MassTag PCR

New ways to perform PCR emerge all the time. This speaks for the speed of technological advances, and reflects the ongoing need to keep up with fast-moving research. We all know that PCR’s main purpose is to amplify a stretch of nucleic acids based on sequence-specific primers. Nowadays, a wide range of PCR techniques exist,…

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Fine-Tune Your MALDI-TOF to Produce Good-looking Mass Spectra

Mass Spec is all about getting the perfect peaks. Without a good peak assigning the correct mass is impossible and you cannot make accurate identifications. Make sure you know how to adjust your MALDI-TOF instrument parameters to achieve your perfect peak. In our previous posts ‘How does Mass Spec Work’ and ‘Imaging Mass Spectrometry: the…

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Get Out of Western Blot Hell: An Intro to Mass Spectrometry

After you finish immunoprecipitating a protein or purifying a subcellular compartment, you need to identify what proteins you purified. You could attempt to identify your purified proteins the old fashioned (and slow!) way by running a multitude of Western blot. But rarely do labs have unlimited funds for Western blot antibodies. And lets face it,…

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You did a Co-IP…now what?

You spent the last few weeks tweaking your Co-immunoprecipitation conditions, testing different antibody/bead combinations, and sampling a panaply of solutions and FINALLY! You have your Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) elution… Now what? Well, you have a few choices. It really all depends on what you need know about the proteins in your elution. Do you need to identify…

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