Mass Spectrometry

Josh Elias, Ph.D.

Platform Leader

We believe all experiments we undertake should be “multi-omic” in nature, since few, if any biological processes relate to just one kind of molecule. We aim to leverage the powerful proteomic and metabolomic capabilities within the Mass Spectrometry Platform, and combine them with the broad array of technologies at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub – imaging, sequencing, single-cell analyses, engineering, and more. This perspective lets us take on research projects that are difficult to impossible to carry out in conventional academic or industry settings.

A wide range of experimental methods at the bench combine with tailored modes of operating our mass spectrometers to give exceptionally deep surveys of proteins and peptides harvested from tissues, cells, and body fluids.

We curate a metabolite library that informs our instruments how to find over 1000 distinct molecules. This gives us confidence that if any metabolite in our library can be detected in a biological specimen, we will be able to collect an MS2 spectra from it, promoting its unambiguous identification.

No single large-scale measurement can capture all aspects of a system’s interesting biology. We believe that taking a multi-omic approach, such as combining proteomics and metabolomics can create novel insights that amount to more than the sum of their parts. We endeavor to nullify technical hurdles to including proteomic and metabolomic measurements in any large-scale investigation.

Our ambition is to create and curate exceptional data sets far beyond the means of a few grad students’ or postdocs’ manual labor. Automation technologies are driving large-scale projects that will be the bedrock of computational studies for years to come.

We strive to create software that sheds light on the “dark matter” that pervades proteomic and metabolomic experiments.