Description

This fellowship opportunity supports postdoctoral research in metallomics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), specifically within the Material Measurement Laboratory's Chemical Sciences Division in Charleston, SC. Metalloproteins, which require metal cofactors for proper function, are critical to human health and are implicated in processes such as protein folding, neurodegenerative diseases, metalloenzyme activity, and detoxification.

The research focuses on understanding how metal ions and metalloprotein complexes contribute to metal-related pathologies, including disruptions caused by metals released from implantable medical devices. These exogenous metals can bind to blood and endothelial cells, potentially forming abnormal metalloprotein complexes that impair cellular function.

State-of-the-art analytical techniques are employed, including laser ablation ICP-MS, LC/ICP-MS, MALDI-MS, LC/MS, and LC/MS/MS with peptide mapping to detect and identify metalloprotein health markers. Additional studies on metal-protein binding energy, metalloprotein conformation, energetics, and dynamics are conducted through collaborations using ESI-MS/MS, multi-nuclear NMR, and quantum chemical methods based on parametric Hamiltonians.

Keywords

• LC/ICP-MS
• LC/MS
• LC/MS/MS
• MALDI-MS
• Metallomics
• Proteomics
• Speciation