Mass Spectrometry: A Foundation Course is a textbook covering the field of mass spectrometry across the chemical, physical, biological, medical and environmental sciences. Sufficient depth is provided for the reader to appreciate the reasons behind and basis for particular experiments. It is uniquely and logically organised to enable the book to form the basis for a university course in mass spectrometry at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. This is achieved by combining specific core sections coupled to optional areas of study tailored to students of the chemical, physical, biological, medical and environmental sciences. Recommended course structures are provided in the front of the book.
Dedicated chapters are included on: organic mass spectrometry; ion chemistry - to emphasise the role of mass spectrometry in fundamental chemistry and physics; biological mass spectrometry including proteomics; mass spectrometry in medicine, environmental and surface science and accelerator mass spectrometry, to emphasise the importance of these areas. Each chapter concludes with key references and additional recommended reading material, making the book an excellent springboard to further study.
Highly readable, easy-to-use and logically presented, Mass Spectrometry: A Foundation Course is an ideal text for students and for those who work with mass spectrometers who wish to gain a solid understanding of the basics in modern mass spectrometry.
"From the reviews:"
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Although I am not a fan or either "eras" or "omes" you hear all the time that we now live in the era of the proteome. Setting aside the issues of what constitutes proteomics (after all people have been sequencing proteins and studying their structure for a few years nowÅ ), and whether the regular appearance of reports of another organisms genome sequence prevents you from saying that we are in the post-genomic era, it is clear that the analysis of large numbers of complex protein mixtures is just about in all of our reach. This is going to be a very important way to look for molecular markers and targets in the battle against cancer.
The bedrock of proteomic analysis is mass spectrometry, which allows you to accurately measure the mass of molecules. In proteomics this can mean studying the mass of intact proteins, which can give you a clue as to their identity, and help you rapidly identify modifications. It can also mean busting the protein into many component fragments and measuring their mass, which can lead to protein identification via clever algorithms that compare measured fragment sizes to predicted ones using the genome databases.
One sign that this technology is about to become widely distributed is the appearance of relatively small softcover textbooks for beginners. These represent a reasonable first step towards initiation in this area, for those of us who left school a few years ago. There are two recent ones that I have read that I found to be particularly useful.
The first is Mass Spectrometry: A Foundation Course by Kevin Downard of Sydney, Australia.
This book covers many aspects of the field in under 200 pages, and has a handy guide to what sections are useful to individuals from different disciplines. It starts with history and concepts, and then devotes a significant amount of space to the instrumentation. This is very useful to anyone who has been to a mass spectrometry meeting and trade show or even browsed the relevant companies websites. Dr. Downard covers the basics of how each variant works, and what it is best suited for, and includes discussion of single and tandem instruments. By the end you'll be able to raise your eyebrows appreciatively the next time a salesman fires an acronym and figure at you (or at least you'll know where to look it up once you have reached a safe distance). The second half of the book looks at specific applications for mass spectrometry, and here you can read selectively on what you are interested in doing. The sections on protein analysis were good primers. The book is quite mathematical throughout, and since I have no talent in this direction, the equations merely confirmed my deficiency in this area - to those of you who like it, it is there. Then at the end are a series of very useful appendices that show amino acid masses, masses of common protein modifications and websites for further reading or for protein identification, among other useful things. I recommend this book highly to anyone looking for a first port of call on the journey to mass spectrometry." [Oliver Bogler]
"From the reviews:"
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Mass spectrometry today plays a vital role in a range of scientific disciplines including synthetic and physical organic chemistry, biological and medicinal chemistry and environmental and surface sciences.
In the past two decades, advances in instrument design and in computer control have brought the technique out of the basements of chemical laboratories and onto the bench of modern analytical laboratories. Advances in linking mass spectrometry to both gas and liquid chromatography have meant that chromatographers have had to learn the extra dimensions of experiment that such multi-dimensional techniques can provide. Mass spectrometry is not now confined to research but is being increasingly used by environmental agencies, clinical chemistry laboratories and anywhere advanced analytical chemistry is required.
Few introductory texts have kept up with these advances, although there have been recent specialist texts on biotechnology and on LC/MS. Downard's book seeks to provide a basis for instruction of undergraduate and new postgraduate students. His philosophy has been to write introductory sections for all the basic aspects of mass spectrometry - his 'core' course - and to add sections for the major areas in which it is employed. These additional sections can be optionally added to the core course, as desired. Downard provides a menu suggesting how they can be put together. Each core section is well written and covers the basis of the science concerned very satisfactorily.
The sections that describe the different applications are necessarily condensed and the author tries to give extra reading with a good set of references.
Students who plan to use mass spectrometry in proteomic research will require much further assistance and the same goes for metabolomic/metabonomic studies and for users of quantitative analysis, but, for both, the core sections will be valuable." [Tony Mallet]
