MALDI-MS at the Ingenieurschule Burgdorf: The Technique, Some Applications and Expected Benefits for the Education in Modern Analytical Chemistry

Abstract

Analytical chemistry is changing rapidly, new methods are developed and introduced in the analytical laboratories. Parallel to this progress, the chemical industry is undergoing pronounced changes: it is focusing more and more on the life sciences.Consequently, the importance of analytical biochemistry is increasing.
The educational system has to keep pace with these developments and has to integrate the new methods, which are or will be tools in analytical laboratories, into the analytical chemistry courses.
Therefore, we were looking for an appropriate method which would allow us to face these challenges in analytical education at the Ingenieurschule (college of engineering) Burgdorf. With the recent acquisition of a matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometer (MALDI-MS), a new analytical technique which has the potential to fulfill our requirements can be offered to the chemistry students.
This contribution presents some analytical applications such as the sequence analysis of a modified oligonucleotide, the characterization of a non-covalently bound antigen-antibody complex as well as the analysis of a synthetic polymer and copolymer. Projects how to implement the method in the analytical chemistry course and the expected benefits for the students are discussed.