Special Feature: Tutorial

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jms.3002

GenoMass software: a tool based on electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometryfor characterization and sequencing of oligonucleotide adductVaneet K Sharma, James Glick, Qing Liao, Chang Shen and Paul VourosPage 490–501

Authors’ biographies

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jms

Volume 47 Number 4April 2012

Professor Paul Vouros is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (1961) and received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 under the direction of Professor Klaus Biemann. After a brief period in industry, he joined the Institute for Lipid Research at Baylor College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor between 1968 and 1974 where he worked on a variety of bioanalytical problems using the then still developing technologies of GC-MS in the laboratory of Professor Evan Horning. He has been at Northeastern University since 1974 where he is currently Professor of Chemistry and Senior Faculty Fellow in the Barnett Institute. For the past several years a major area of his work has involved the sensitive development of methodology based on capillary LC-MS for the analysis of DNA adducts. The present publication represents an expansion of these studies toward the characterization of adduct formation in the context of base sequence.

Vaneet Kumar Sharma is a Graduate Research Assistant at Northeastern University, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis. He received his Bachelor (B.Sc. (Hons. school), 2001) and Masters (M.Sc. (Hons. school), 2003) degrees from the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. He holds another Masters in Chemistry (M.S., 2008) from the University of Connecticut, with an emphasis in nanotechnology. In 2008, he joined Northeastern University for his Ph.D. in the lab of Professor Paul Vouros. His research focus involves the use of monolithic columns applied to genotoxin-modified oligonucleotides and the development of software for the identification and sequencing of modified oligonucleotides.

Journal of

MASS SPECTROMETRY

Today mass spectrometry plays a prime role for structural analyses in the fi eld of proteomics. This is in large part due to signifi cant development of methodologies for the interpretation of the vast amount of MS/MS data acquired and the possibility to search this information in protein databases. Such approaches and methods are emerging for structural analyses in the fi eld of genomic. In this special feature article, Paul Vouros and colleagues present the potential of new in-house developed software named GenoMass, capable of analyzing MS/MS sequencing data of oligonucleotides to identify the exact location of potential adducts. The analysis of DNA adducts is of prime importance in our quest to understand DNA damage and the advent of related diseases. Paul Vouros is Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University (Boston, MA). The main research focus of his laboratory is the development and applications of capillary hyphenated MS/MS techniques for the analysis of biomarkers indicative of exposure to environmental carcinogens or of other biological processes.

James Glick obtained his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry at Northeastern University in the lab of Professor Paul Vouros using LC-MS for the quantitative analysis of genomic damage from foodborne carcinogens. After a brief stint as a postdoctoral fellow in the Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, he is now the Director of the Core Mass Spectrometry facility at Northeastern University. In addition to his work in small molecule and oligonucleotide LC-MS, he teaches Undergraduate level courses in Quantitative Analytical Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis.

Qing Liao obtained B.S. and M.S. in analytical chemistry from the University of Mississippi. She earned her Ph.D. in mass spectrometry from Northeastern University. Dr. Liao worked for Pharmacopeia and Pfizer before she became the manager of the Mass Spectrometry Facility of Harvard University and remained there for seven years. She is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Shenitech LLC.

Chang Shen, is a 25-year veteran of electrical engineer and computer specialist. He received his Ph.D. from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (EPFL). He worked in process instrumentation industry, semiconductor industry, telecommunication industry as well as biotechnology industry as a Principal Engineer. He is the founder and currently the President of Shenitech LLC in Acton, MA, developing cutting-edge products for fl ow and energy measurement.