High resolution mass spectrometry for tropical medicine research. (360G-Wellcome-104926_Z_14_Z)

The Wellcome Trust funded Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam conduct world-leading research in several major tropical diseases (malaria, dengue, typhoid, tuberculosis, rickettsial infections, influenza and melioidosis). The Department of Clinical Pharmacology within MORU is a leading centre for drug measurements, equipped with multiple low resolution high sensitivity triple quadruple LC/MS/MS systems, appr opriate for the quantification of small molecule drugs. These instruments lack the resolution and mass accuracy required for efficient identification of unknown molecules. This capability is essential for us to take a combined metabolomic, proteomic, and lipidomic approach to developing improved diagnostics (disease biomarker identification), understanding of pathophysiology (virulence factor identification), better treatment (active metabolite identification), discovering mechanisms of drug act ion and resistance, and new drug development in malaria, tuberculosis and melioidosis. This capability would be provided by a state of the art, high resolution, high accuracy and high sensitivity mass spectrometer. With unique access to clinical samples, strong clinical research groups within the units, and existing expertise in mass spectrometry, we are in a unique position to succeed in this field - and this would simply not be possible without the requested equipment.