Monday, April 23, 2018

MassSpectrometryMethods.org



Wow! I'm fully aware that this blog has recently been worse even than normal. Part of this is a result of this other project that I'm working on that has been revealed at ABRF today and a description of the project will show up in bioRxIV sometime this week.

If you've had the misfortune of reading this blog for a while you might remember that there was once a tab over there --> that said something like "Orbitrap Methods Database"

This was a problem for me for a lot of reasons. First of all -- I'm not going to write the best instrument method in the world. Chances are I can write you one that will work (if it's stuff I'm good at -- I'm going to write a method that will work pretty darned well) but it's crazy to think that you should be running your instruments the way I tell you to.  There were other downsides and I really had to take it down -- always hoping I could bring it back somehow in a smarter way.


What about this?!?!  What if I could set up a website and Google Team Drive and get a ton of instrument methods -- then -- could I convince some great mass spectrometrists to get with me a few times a year and go through the methods and pick the very best ones?!?

WAIT -- Could I also come up with a completely ridiculous way of recruiting help that requires me to put a dog in a costume and make him do a pose he really doesn't want to do...?

Was this the project I was born to do?!?


(This picture is on the ABRF poster)

Most jokes aside -- here is the idea --

If you are brand new to mass spectrometry and your instrument just got installed -- HOW DO YOU DO ANYTHING?

If you are awesome at shotgun proteomics and someone asks you to get an accurate mass of an intact antibody -- how do you get going?  Do you know that in source fragmentation is a critical parameter?

Maybe you just go to Www.MassSpectrometryMethods.Org and you download the "Intact protein > 60kDa" method for your instrument.  Now you've got a starting point.

Now -- back to the initial idea -- and the picture of Gusto above -- if this is just me putting methods in a Google Drive -- this idea is dumb. However -- if I can get some of the top experts in mass spectrometry to sign on and help me out -- can you imagine how cool the next release could be?

I don't know how to do lipidomics. I'm not very good at Top Down (I'd like to get better). The metabolomics methods could definitely improve. Heck -- the shotgun proteomics methods could be better.

If you'd like to help out -- check out the site and shoot me an email -- its now LCMSMethods@Gmail.com.

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