Centre for Drug Safety Science (CDSS) Bioanalytical Facility

Since its formation in 1998, the CDSS Bioanalytical Facility has been at the forefront of the new field of Proteomics. Following a successful bid led by Professor Kevin Park, the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science was established with the bioanalytical facility at its core. Initially focussing on drug metabolism and drug-protein interactions, the remit of the facility has expanded to include global discovery proteomics in health and disease and absolute quantification of proteins and drugs/metabolites for biomarker validation.

The well-respected Facility’s advanced equipment and resources are supported by experienced and knowledgeable specialists in pre-clinical and clinical proteomics.

What you'll receive from our facility

• We have expertise in label-dependent (iTRAQ, TMT, SILAC) and label-free (SWATH, DIA) quantitative approaches that allow a global view of protein expression. We have a particular strength in the application of SWATH/DIA to clinical proteomics. This approach provides a comprehensive catalogue of proteins present in a cell or tissue which is then used to identify and quantify thousands of proteins in individual human samples, allowing for patient stratification and the potential for identification of translatable biomarkers
• We are also able to quantify peptides of interest at low attomole (femtogram) levels of sensitivity using targeted multiple reaction monitoring/single reaction monitoring MS. The characterisation of unconventional protein modifications is another area of expertise. These modifications may be as a result of direct drug or metabolite binding but may also be a result of perturbed physiological processes leading to unexpected biochemical modifications of protein
• We are experts in: planning and study design; grant applications (scientific feasibility, provision of pilot data, method development, preliminary data analysis, data management planning and costings); bespoke method development; data acquisition and interpretation; manuscript preparation and data deposition
• The facility is committed to training the next generation of biological mass spectrometrists and has made significant contributions to the theses of over 40 PhD students in the last 10 years. Training is delivered one-to-one, and is hands-on and in-depth, allowing researchers to develop independent skills.

The equipment we offer includes:

• Sciex TripleTOF 6600 high resolution accurate mass LC-MS operated in nanoflow
• Sciex hybrid triple quadrupole-ion trap LC-MS (QTRAP 6500) operated in nanoflow
• Sciex hybrid triple quadrupole-ion trap LC-MS (QTRAP 5500) operated in microflow
• Range of 1D and 2D gel electrophoresis equipment
• Covaris adaptive focused acoustic ultrasonicator
• Four Agilent HPLC systems for sample pre-fractionation (ion exchange, reversed phase, immunodepletion/selection, size exclusion).

Who can use our facilities

• University of Liverpool academic staff, postdoctoral researchers and students
• Researchers from other universities/ research institutions
• Industrial research partners.

What the Centre for Drug Safety Science can be used for

• Global analysis of relative protein expression changes using unlabelled (SWATH, DIA) or labelled (iTRAQ, TMT, SILAC) samples. A typical iTRAQ 8plex experiment will quantify 3-5,000 proteins, a tissue SWATH experiment 4-7,000 proteins
• Absolute quantification of proteins and drugs/metabolites for biomarker validation
• Proteomics on single sections of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue
• Identification and quantification of drug metabolite and drug-protein covalent interactions
• Quantification of peptides of interest at low attomole (femtogram) levels of sensitivity using targeted multiple reaction monitoring
• Analysis of small molecules, with targeted analyses allowing for sensitive and specific absolute quantification of drugs and their metabolites, and of endogenous analytes
• Precursor ion scanning for diagnostic fragment ions to aid in the characterisation of specific chemical or biological modifications.

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