Fourier transform - ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer

We use an FT-ICR instrument equipped with a 12 Tesla superconducting magnet, an electrospray ionization (ESI) source, a collision cell for collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), and an indirectly heated cathode for electron-based dissociation, e.g., electron capture dissociation (ECD),  electron detachment dissociation (EDD), or electron induced dissociation (EID) / listed at Research Infrastructures in Austria / funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) with co-financing from the European Union (www.efre.gv.at) and the University of Innsbruck. 

The FT-ICR instrument is used to develop new approaches for the study of ribonucleic acids (RNA) relevant to important biological processes and human diseases, including viral RNA motifs, mRNA riboswitches, and ribozymes, and their interactions with peptides, proteins, organic molecules, and inorganic ions to understand RNA recognition in the context of cellular regulation. The novel insights gained from these studies will provide fresh impetus for the development of drugs (RNA therapeutics, RNA vaccines, antisense RNA, siRNAs, etc.) to combat human diseases.