The DIMES (Department of Experimental Medicine, Biochemistry Section) mass spectrometry facility is equipped with four instruments for the structural characterization (by mean of gas and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometric techniques) and quality control of nucleosides, nucleotides and nucleotides mimics (e.g., peptide nucleic acid, PNA) and both conventional and retro-inverse peptides. Structural characterization and qualitative-quantitative determination of a number of biological compounds including proteins, oligonucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, steroid-like molecules with potential pharmacological activities, e.g. antineoplastic and antiviral drugs and pro-drugs are also performed.

Facility includes one high resolution Q-TOF geometry tandem mass spectrometer (Applied Biosystems Q-STAR XL) coupled to a Nano chromatographic system, one Micro HPLC-Ion Trap mass spectrometer (Agilent 1100 MSD integrated system) and two single quadrupole mass spectrometers alternatively equipped with EI, CI, thermospray and electrospray interface (Hewlett Packard 5989A Engine). Both the tandem and the ion trap instrument allow, after in gel digestion, protein sequencing by mean of in house “de novo” software and bioinformatics tools. Moreover the availability of two complementary ionization systems (electrospray and MALDI -matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-) on the Q-STAR enables the analysis of a wide variety of standard and modified (e.g. glycosylated or phosphorylated) peptides both in mixture and after their chromatographic separation, using peptide mass fingerprint or ms/ms analysis.