Vanderbilt Awarded $10.3 Million for Mass Spectrometry Research

The Mass Spectrometry Research Center of Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) was awarded $10.3 million from the National Center for Research Resources (Bethesda, Maryland). The award, spaced over five years, will be used to establish a National Research Resource for Imaging Mass Spectrometry.

Researchers at the University plan to use imaging mass spectrometry to visualize the location of proteins in cells and tissues and track the molecular changes that cause disease. The program reportedly will focus on transitioning the technology from the instrumental development laboratory to the clinical research laboratory, in addition to developing new technologies and pursuing new biological applications.

The Research Resource will be led by Richard Caprioli, PhD, who currently directs Vanderbilt’s Mass Spectrometry Research Center. “Imaging mass spectrometry gives the research scientist and the physician a new and unprecedented view of the molecular changes underlying disease processes,” Caprioli said in a statement.