Microbiology: Virus Passes Acid Test for Entering Cells Drug Therapy: Failure of HIV Therapy Pits Researchers vs. Drug Maker Research Safety: New Post Adds Vigor to Biological Safety Research Resources: Mass Spectrometry Moves to the Quad Primary Care: World Health Problems Are Diagnosed at the Community Level Molecule Flips Master Switch for Growth of Nerve Cell Axons NIH Panel Outlines Optimal Longterm Treatment for PKU Drug Use Up Among College Students Patterns Found in Gene Transcription Response to DNA Damage HMS and HSPH Faculty Elected to the IOM New HMS Program in Clinical Science Grants Master of Medical Sciences Degree Orkin Is First Holder of Nathan Chair In Memoriam New Associate Dean of Educational Technology Honors and Advances Grad Student Science Series Hits Mark with Adults in Local Community Front Page

RESEARCH RESOURCES Mass Spectrometry Moves to the Quad Researchers will soon have access to a new mass spectrometry facility at HMS, whose director, Steve Gygi, HMS assistant professor of cell biology, recently arrived on campus. Steve Gygi, head of the new mass spectrometry facility at HMS, is gearing up to analyze protein samples for Quad researchers. —Steve Gilbert Initially, the facility is for researchers on the Quad. "We expect to take some samples soon, and by the first of the year, we expect to be accepting them full time," Gygi said last month from his temporary lab in Building C. He recently moved to his permanent space on the second floor of the Seeley Mudd building. Gygi explained that researchers who run protein gels can excise gel bands of interest and send them to his facility for protein analysis. "We identify the protein based on amino acid sequence information collected in the mass spectrometer," he said. The equipment includes three ion-trap mass spectrometers, each connected to an apparatus for high performance liquid chromatography. Gygi's group recently automated the instruments and installed them in the new location. The machinery is designed to gently break a protein apart and then sequence it directly from the resulting peptides. In the past, Gygi said, it would take an overnight analysis to sequence one peptide by the standard procedure, Edman degradation. With the new technology, which is much more powerful and sophisticated, it takes one to two seconds. The redundancy of the method assures that as long as two or more peptides from the particular protein are identified, there is no doubt about the protein match. The new facility will provide researchers with a resource they may not have been able to afford previously. "Other facilities overcharge because the technology is expensive. We are fortunate to have the instruments purchased up front by the Taplin Family Funds for Discovery." Future subsidies will come from Harvard Medical School and other sources. Gygi also has a grant from the National Institutes of Health. "In some cases, it can cost as much as $500 to $1,000 per peptide," he said. "Our goal is to identify a protein from a gel with as much automation and high-throughput as possible in order to keep the costs down." He intends to get the cost per peptide down well below $500. The mass spectrometry facility will be named for the John Taplin family. Gygi will oversee a staff that includes Larry Licklider, the associate director, as well as one programmer and two technicians. Gygi also has his own laboratory with defined research projects. "We're trying to develop a mass spectrometry–based technique similar to the techniques used in DNA microarrays, but at the protein level," he said. Gygi and his colleagues are using quantitative proteomics to see differences in protein expression among various cell types. —Tracy Hampton