Mass Spectrometry

Doctor Thomas Nuhse explains that mass spectrometry is a technique for measuring the mass of molecules, which therefore allows researchers to identify molecules.

Mass spectrometry is quite simply a way of measuring the mass of molecules, very simply. In the context of biology, quite recently mass spectrometers have developed to a point where we can measure the mass of peptides and proteins and nucleic acids for example. If we use the right preparation techniques, measuring the mass of a protein or also the mass of the peptides that come from protein can tell us what the protein is, and that is something that is very often at the center of biological research, finding out which protein is it that I have identified, that I have isolated or purified in something. And mass spectrometry has developed recently to a point where we can analyze with such precision the mass of a protein or its fragments, that we can say that "this is protein A or B or C."