Washington-Baltimore Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group

The Washington-Baltimore MSDG is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Young Investigator Travel Awards.  4 recipients were judged to be deserving of an award.

Joshua Wilhide, University of Maryland- Baltimore County (Advisor:  Prof. Dan Fabris):  Investigating higher-order structure of nucleic acids by IRMPD in FTICR mass spectrometry.  Award: $600

Omoruyi Osula, Johns Hopkins University (Advisor:  Prof. Bob Cotter):  Analytical Methods for Improving Identification of SUMO-Modified Peptides.  Award: $300

Katherine Stamper, Johns Hopkins University (Advisor:  Prof. Bob Cotter):  Combining ChIP Antibodies and Mass Spectrometry to  Study Post-Translational Modifications on Histones.  Award: $200.

Colin Wynne, University of Maryland (Advisor: Catherine Fenselau):  High confidence identification of bioagent biomarkers using top-down analyses on an Orbitrap.  Award: $100.

Date: June 15, 2009

Time: 10:45 am

Topic:  Driving Biological Discovery Using Mass Spectrometry

Speaker: Professor John Yates, Department of Chemical Physiology, Scripps Institute

Location: Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, MCI Theater, Museum Support Center, 4210 Silver Hill Road,  Suitland, MD 20746,  301-238-1240

Shimadzu Training Center

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, Inc. Training Center
7100 Riverwood Drive
Columbia, MD 21046

From I-95 North and South: Take 32 west (Columbia) exit. Take 32 west to the Shaker Drive/Eden Brook exit.

Bear right onto Eden Brook Dr. Proceed to stop light and turn right onto Old Columbia Road; continue on for 1 mile (through the Rivers Industrial Park). Make a left on Riverwood Drive. The customer training and Education Center is the first building on the right.

From U.S. 29 north and south: Take 32 east (toward Ft. Meade) to Shaker Drive/Old Columbia Rd. exit (first exit you will come to). Exit route 32 onto Old Columbia Road. Proceed through stop light and continue on for 1 mile(through the Rivers Industrial Park). Make a left on Riverwood Drive. The customer training and Education Center is the first building on the right.

Differential phosphorylation and accumulation of nuclear proteins associated with defense responses in plants

Speaker: Dr. Bret Cooper, Soybean Genomics and Improvement Laboratory
USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD  20705

Date: Monday, May 18, 2009

Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Shimadzu Scientific Instrument, Inc. Training Center, 7100 Riverwood Drive, Columbia, MD 21046

Please join Miquel Antoine and the speaker for dinner at the Ram’s Head Tavern at Savage Mill, 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 at 5:30 pm.  Contact Miquel at Miquel.Antoine@jhuapl.edu and let her know you will be there.

Abstract: Approximately 5,000 proteins from soybean nuclei were detected using a high-throughput liquid chromatography triple-mass spectrometry method.  Statistics of summed spectral counts revealed sets of proteins with differential accumulation changes between soybeans susceptible and resistant to the soybean rust fungus.  These protein accumulation changes were compared to gene expression changes and very little overlap was found.  Differential phosphorylation state changes were also observed.  Many of the differential accumulation or modified proteins have predicted nuclear localization signals and have homology to transcription factors and other nuclear regulatory proteins. These results suggest that numerous plant defense responses are post-translationally regulated in the nucleus.  It is possible that these proteomic changes influence several down-stream defense responses that ultimately confer immunity.