Develop guidelines for CE-MS separations for intact proteins and protein complexes

One of the greatest challenges in analyzing intact proteins and protein complexes is the efficient separation of mixtures into their constituents before analysis by MS.  To help with this, the Consortium has started a new Initiative to develop guidelines for the use of online capillary electrophoresis in separating proteins and non-covalent protein complexes for top-down and native mass spectrometry.  The high resolution provided by CE will be particularly valuable in separating various proteoforms and non-covalent protein complexes present in biological samples.

The Initiative is being led by Liangliang Sun of Michigan State University, Alexander R. Ivanov of Northeastern University, and Kevin Jooss of Northwestern University.

The goals of the study are:

  • Design a study to assess the state of the art in CE-MS and CE-MS/MS
  • Engage a range of laboratories to analyze this set of samples and provide data
  • Review and analyze the data and determine most useful approaches
  • Publish guidelines on the best practices for successful CE-MS and CE-MS/MS analysis of proteins and protein complexes