Chemists Weigh Intact Virus Mixture With Mass Spectrometer

Carnegie Mellon University chemists, led by Mark Bier , have separated and weighed virus particles using mass spectrometry (MS). This is the first time that researchers successfully used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization MS to analyze a mixture of intact virus particles. Structure of the icosahedral Cowpea mosaic virus, credit: Thomas Splettstoesser (www.scistyle.com) Bier, research professor of chemistry and director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Molecular Analysis , and graduate student Logan Plath will present their findings in a poster session at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics today, June 2, in St Louis. "It is important to study virus particles because they are everywhere on our Earth and in enormous numbers. They are not all bad for humans and, in fact, it could be said that bacteriophages are essential for life as we know it,” Bier said. "We need to understand the good from the bad to better understand nature and how we can best take advantage of these molecular forms. Mass spectrometers separate ionized molecules based on their mass-to-charge ratio.