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Dr

Marina Edelson-Averbukh

  • Research Fellow in Mass Spectrometry
    Department of Physics - Faculty of Natural Sciences
  • 209, Blackett Laboratory, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom

BIO

I am a mass spectrometrist, working on the development of new methods for biomolecular structure determination. I have been leading a collaboration between Physics, Chemistry and Surgery & Cancer at Imperial to develop a new kind of two-dimensional mass spectrometry based on the physical principle of partial covariance mapping. The fragment ion correlations revealed by our two-dimensional partial covariance mass spectrometry (2D-PC-MS) provide highly specific information on the biomolecular building block sequence, much more so than the individual fragment mass-to-charge ratios on which the 1D MS is based. As a result, 2D-PC-MS can solve structural problems inaccessible to the standard 1D technique. Here is an example of 2D-PC-MS spectrum of a triply charged peptide ion: See more in our recent paper which received coverage in Physics Today. The 2D-PC-MS technology is subject to two patent applications highlighted by the Enterprise Division of Imperial. Within the Extreme Light Consortium of the Blackett Laboratory, I work on application of ultrashort laser pulses to biomolecular mass spectrometry, as well as on the development of coherent control schemes for the optimal protein sequence coverage. I obtained my PhD in organic mass spectrometry from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, after which I moved to the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ, Heidelberg) as a Minerva (Max Planck Society) postdoctoral fellow. In DKFZ, I developed negative ion mode collision-induced dissociation for protein post-translational modifications, the field I continued to advance as a German Research Foundation Principal Investigator (DFG Eigene Stelle) in the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. After filling a number of university teaching lecturer positions in the UK, I was awarded Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship to create the 2D-PC-MS.

FACULTY

  • Faculty of Natural Sciences

FIELDS OF RESEARCH