The Proteomics core facility has been founded in 2001 as a part of the Biocenter Oulu (BCO) and comprises to 2-D gel electrophoresis, image analysis and protein identification by mass spectrometry. The 2-D gelelectrophoresis and image analysis facility, coordinated by Dr. Steffen Ohlmeier, includes IEF (Multiphor II, Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden) and SDS-PAGE (Ettan DALT II, Amersham Biosciences). Gels are scanned by an ImageScanner (Amersham Biosciences) for Coomassie stained and silver stained gels or a MolecularImager FX Pro (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) for autoradiography and fluorescence. The protein pattern is analysed by specific software (Ettan Progenesis Workstation 2003.1, Nonlinear Dynamics, Durham NC; Melanie 3.09, GeneBio, Geneva, Switzerland; PDQuest 6.2.0, Bio-Rad; Decodon Delta 2D 2.01, Decodon, Greifswald, Germany).

For mass spectrometry (Dr. Ulrich Bergmann) the core facility operates two different instruments. A VOYAGER DE-STR MALDI-TOF (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA), and a Q-TOF electrospray (Micromass, Milford, MA) mass spectrometer. The MALDI-TOF has its main application in the identification of proteins from 2-D gels, while the Q-TOF can provide sequence information of peptides and is thus used to characterize proteins (post-translational modifications) in more detail.

Proteomics Core Facility, Biocenter Oulu, Department of Biochemistry,
University of Oulu, P.O.Box 3000,
FIN-90014 UNIVERSITY OF OULU, FINLAND
tel. +358 8 553 1209
fax: +358 8 553 1141