Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) Facility at UB

Operational Philosophy

The facility has a permanent manager whose responsibilities include overseeing the operational status of the instruments, routine maintenance, training of new users, and assisting in the development of new assays. Also associated with the facility is a full-time PhD analytical chemist whose responsibility is both to develop new analytical approaches that advance the field, and to bring new analytical developments to bear on the projects that use, or could use, the technologies of the facility.

The philosophy of the facility is to train and support users as they gain the compentency to become self-sufficient in the planning, development, execution, and analysis of their experiments. Although the facility has staff to carry out research projects, wherever possible, we avoid operating as a data collection service.

This model has been very successful; we have achieved a dramatic increase in the number of investigators who are self-sufficient with LC/MS analysis techniques, and have been able to provide students, principally at the M.S. and Ph.D. level, with extensive hands-on training.

Integration with the University's Mission of Education and Training

The rapid enhancement of the capabilities of this facility has provided both an opportunity and a need for more advanced training at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. Both Pharmaceutical analysis and proteomics are areas in which high local demand exists.

To address this need, we have enhanced didactic and practical training for undergraduate/graduate and professional students in modern LC/MS analysis. In Fall semester 2006, a revised and expanded version of PHC560 was offered to meet that need. Those on the UB campus can find up-to-date information on this course and other opportunities for training in LC/MS on UB's intranet web site, myUB.Buffalo.edu.