Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

We request a specific Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) setup to support research within Drs. Hoorfar, Murch, Mahmoud, Zandberg, and Kheirkhah's laboratories at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) campus. These research topics span gas sensing technology, metabolomics, carbohydrate metabolism, and gas turbine engines. Although these topics are diverse, they all require a GC-MS and none are available on campus. This equipment is required for two main purposes: calibration of devices and investigating unknown or uncharacterized chemical species in biological systems. Based upon recent advances in microfluidics, Hoorfars lab has developed an artificial olfaction technology to detect volatile gases (including natural gases, tetrahydrocannabinol, acetone, and hydrogen sulfide) at low concentrations and within mixtures. These have applications for natural gas leakage detection from pipelines, breath analysis, and monitoring nuisance sewer gases. Zandbergs group has devised capillary electrophoresis-based alternatives to GC-MS-based monosaccharide analysis for better research of pectins. Data gathered from a GC-MS will provide reliable reference values for calibrating and validating these devices. A GC-MS is also required for the characterization of chemical species in plant tissues, including unidentified lipids that have applications in medicine, cosmetics and industrial chemicals (Murch), fugitive gases from turbine engines (Kheirkhah), complex carbohydrate metabolites, terpenes (Mahmoud), and volatile gases dissolved in liquid waste. A unique and functionally versatile GC-MS setup will support the applicants various research directions. Thermo-Fisher provides a GC-MS with a highly modular design for easy modification; several additional detectors will be attached to ensure complete functionality. These additional features include a pulsed discharge detector for analyzing breath samples, hydrogen sulfide and nitrous oxide, a flame ionization detector for methane detection, and a three way splitter for concurrent detection across multiple sensors. Due to the complete functional capacity of this GC-MS setup, we believe that it is equipped to also support other research groups on campus as needed. There is a high demand for the requested GC-MS at UBCO. Among the applicants research group alone, over 35 students and their respective projects will have a direct benefit from this equipment. Quality of theses and publications will improve without excessive delays experienced in the past by utilizing external GC-MS services. Industry partners support many of the applicants projects and have established strict deadlines to accomplish industry-relevant research and development. Unnecessary delay puts these timelines at risk and provides a negative impression to our industry partners, potentially damaging future collaboration.