October 10, 2018
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar welcomes Si Wu from the University of Oklahoma
Submitted by Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Si Wu, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, will be the featured speaker for Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 in 120 Ackert Hall. She will present
"Top-down Mass Spectrometry and Functional Proteomics."
Wu earned her doctorate at Washington State University with James E. Bruce. Afterward, she served as a postdoctoral associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Ljiljiana Pasa-Tolic and Richard D. Smith. Before accepting her position at the University of Oklahoma, she worked as a research scientist at Battelle Toxicology Northwest followed by a position as a senior research scientist at Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory. Her current research specialties include functional proteomics and bio-analytical mass spectrometry.
Presentation abstract: The ability to rapidly identify functional proteins with post-translation modifications, or PTMs, is a crucial element in understanding cellular function. Protein PTMs have emerged in the post-genomic era critical features in regulating and diversifying protein biological activity but identifying specific proteoforms with PTMs and understanding their function on individual proteins is currently limited by the lack of effective and accessible analytical methods. Therefore, there is a crucial need to develop a high-throughput approach to functionally characterize intact proteins and their modified proteoforms at the systems level. The overall purpose of our research program is to develop and apply new top-down and functional mass spectrometry, MS, proteomics technologies to characterize intact proteins and their modified proteoforms. This talk includes our recently developed high-throughput quantitative top-down MS platform that couples an online 2D pH RP/RPLC separation and multiplexed TMT top-down quantitation to identify and quantify low abundance intact proteins and their modified proteoforms in complex biological samples. Wu also will discuss the resent results on detecting intact autoantibody biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE, patient serum samples using our proposed top-down proteomics platform.