Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics

The Melbourne Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility provides academic and industry researchers access to specialist mass spectrometry and proteomic equipment and expertise.

The facility is Open Access. 

We teach you to perform your own mass spectrometry and proteomics experiments using our instrumentation.

All advice on the planning, execution, and analysis of your samples is included in the cost.  We have taught people to:

  • Process their own gel spots,
  • Characterize intact recombinant proteins by mass,
  • Confirm a chemical synthesis,
  • Identify phosphorylation sites,
  • Immune-precipitation of protein complexes, and
  • Perform both labelled and label-free quantitation experiments. 

We have more than 300 users from more than 70 different labs all over Victoria and Interstate as evidence that this approach is very effective.  We have a fleet of eight mass spectrometers and we make it as easy as possible for you to learn as much or as little as you like about the actual instrumentation.

Our costs are based on a membership structure.  The facility access cost is highly subsidized by the University of Melbourne and is charged on a quarterly, or yearly basis.  A laboratory head will pay the subscription cost ($7600 for University of Melbourne) and then every laboratory member can access the platform. 

Like a gym membership you can run as many samples as you like during your subscription

The only limit is that as a shared facility you cannot monopolize or run samples in preference to anyone else. The greatest benefit of using our facility is that you learn how to do it yourself. We frequently find that users start very simple but as they get more experience they branch out to ever more complex and imaginative uses for the technology.  They start to redesign how they do things in order to take advantage of new workflows and more precise answers – why spend hours on an SDS-PAGE gel for a recombinant protein when in 15 minutes you can confirm its primary structure with an EXACT mass on the full-length protein?

Mass Spectrometers

At present we have:

  • 2 x Thermo NanoLC/ OrbiTrap Fusion Lumos
  • 2 x Thermo NanoLC/ Q Exactive Plus Mass spectrometer
  • Thermo NanoLC/ OrbiTRAP Eclipse mass spectrometer
  • Thermo NanoLC/ OrbiTrap Exploris 480
  • Thermo Exactive Focus
  • Agilent 6520 LC/ESI-TOF mass spectrometer
  • Agilent LC/ 8900 ICP-QQQ mass spectrometer
  • Waters XS IMS QTOF Mass spectrometer
  • Trajan /Waters HDX system (robotic HDX platform)
  • Shimadzu 8050 QQQ LCMSMS

The laboratory also has a number of general equipment items for use:

  • Deadbox for proteomic sample preparation
  • Labconco SpeediVac system
  • Vertis benchtop freeze dryer

We also have:

  • Two Agilent HPLC systems for sample preparation.
  • Two Agilient prep scale HPLC systems with UV and MS detection
  • Three Shimadzu Prep HPLC with UV and MS detection

For more information:

Access to the Mass Spectrometers

To access the mass spectrometers contact:

A/Prof Nicholas Williamson
nawill [at] unimelb.edu.au (A/Prof Nicholas Williamson)
Head of the Melbourne Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility
Tel: (03) 8344 2206

or

Ching-Seng Ang
Tel: (03) 8344 2540

Users will only be granted access after they have attended a formal training session.