About Ben Orsburn

The author of this blog has been applying mass spectrometry to riddles in biology for so long that I've been advised to not actually say how long. First with clinical chemistry, then a PhD centered on glycopeptides before moving into the much less stressful worlds of messenger RNA, proteins and metabolites. 

If you need help with any of these things, feel free to reach out to me directly: LCMSmethods@gmail.com

Funny to have to type it, but - yes - at my age you can still actually operate a mass spectrometer - yourself, with your own hands and process and interpret the data - yes, yourself. You probably won't believe this, but I can and do also prepare my own samples. Here is some recent proof I'm particularly proud of. One dude did the proteomics, the metabolomics and the single cell proteomics. Every step. 

It was also the cover story and I made the cover art as well (with the help of an AI). 

Google Scholar has some more examples of what I and my teams do. 

I also do stuff outside of proteomics - a side project I've been working on for years finally got to a good publishing point. If you want to feel like protein PTMs are a nice break, you should take a foray into the world of pesticide residue analysis. I didn't buy bulk aliquots of hundreds of different pesticides and develop methods to keep them to myself. More complete LCMS methods coming soon. 

I was previously the chair of the US HUPO Virtual Media Outreach Group and I'm still an active member. Being part of this team is one of the coolest things I've done in my career. Our goal is to make cutting edge proteomics technology more approachable. More information on US HUPO and VMO can be found here: https://www.ushupo.org/Committees

Part of the VMO work is helping Dr. Benjamin Neely and I find guests for THE Proteomics Show Podcast series. 

Another was taking on the task of identifying a suitable official mascot for the US HUPO and HUPO organizations. It was the least I could do for organizations that have meant the absolute world to me.

This blog is a symptom of an obsession with the power of mass spectrometry and the belief that these technologies, when used to their potential, will make the world a better place.

Some other useful links: 

www.LCMSmethods.org

ABRF Workflow Interest Network Panel. Honestly, I should probably take this down, but we had a great run as a team. 

The Orsburn Lab Github. This isn't just the code that we've made, it's also other people's code that I use and you should too.

If you'd like to reach me, the best way is to place a comment on the blog post of interest, or send me a direct email:  LCMS methods@gmail.com (remove the space)

Fair warning, though: If I appear enthusiastic about this stuff in these blog posts, you haven't seen me wound up in person. I love this stuff. 

I'm also noisy as @ProteomicsNews on Twitter and try to help answer questions on r/proteomics.