Mass Spectrometry Core: Proteomics and Metabolomics Shared Resource - Project Summary/Abstract Since the last renewal, the Mass Spectrometry Core: Proteomics and Metabolomics has been significantly upgraded, including a new Director and staff, the purchase of state-of-the art instrumentation, expansion of Core proteomics services, and the introduction of metabolomics services. By improving every aspect of service, the Mass Spectrometry Core provides Cancer Center members with the highest level of support for their proteomic, metabolomic, and custom peptide synthesis needs. The Director and Associate Director provide expert consultation concerning the design, implementation, and analysis of a wide range of experiments including: protein identification, protein quantification, identification of post-translational modifications, secreted protein/peptide analysis, untargeted lipidomics profiling, targeted lipidomics and metabolomics, bile acids analysis, amino acid quantitation, fatty acid analysis, and custom peptide synthesis. In recent years, five new mass spectrometers have been acquired and a highly experienced Core staff, with strong working knowledge of a wide range of proteomics and metabolomics applications, has been recruited to oversee this facility. The staff provides the knowledge and technical skills to get the most out of this sophisticated new equipment. The Core staff are constantly working to implement new analytical techniques in these rapidly evolving fields while supporting researchers with data analysis, as well as manuscript and grant preparation. Peptide synthesis services have recently been consolidated into this Core and offer custom services for synthesis, HPLC purification, and mass spectrometry-based analysis of peptides, including long peptide syntheses and custom modifications. This Core is broadly used by the vast majority of Cancer Center members, and the staff remain dedicated to meeting and advancing their research. The Core strives to facilitate cancer research by: 1) providing sophisticated instrumentation for discovery: the Core has five high- resolution mass spectrometers (three for proteomics and two for metabolomics) and one peptide synthesizer, 2) providing expertise: decades of combined experience from the Core staff are made readily accessible to Salk investigators for consultations concerning experimental design, data acquisition and analysis, and manuscript and grant preparation, 3) providing critical services: The Core staff provides reproducible, high- quality sample preparation services prior to metabolic and proteomic analysis, as well as providing custom peptide synthesis and purification, 4) providing education, training, and support: Salk researchers at all levels of expertise can receive training in the successful applications of mass spectrometry for proteomic and metabolomics analysis, particularly with respect to experimental design and data analysis, and 5) identifying and evaluating new technologies: the Core seeks to ensure that it continuously offers state-of-the-art instrumentation and validated technological advances to enhance discovery as a result of the Core users' experiments.