The EE Sub-Core is a P30-specific unit that partners with the UIC RRC-MSC to leverage its equipment and expertise, providing CACHET members with identification and quantitative measurements of analytes in biological and environmental samples. The RRC-MSC/EE Sub-Core, equipped with eight modern mass spectrometers available to CACHET members, recently re-located to renovated space in the Center for Structural Biology Building, adjacent to the UIC- School of Public Health (SPH). This unit of the EBC is located centrally within the Illinois Medical District and is easily accessible. The facility and labs have a secure card-reader entrance affording 24-hour availability and adjacent parking to all staff and users. Investigators who are frequent users from off-campus locations (e.g., UofC PIs) are given special identification cards for laboratory access. Experienced users may arrange to start experiments before the staff leaves and continue after hours. Data are archived in an informatics center maintained by the RRC and may be retrieved remotely for processing.

Leadership

Stephanie Cologna, PhD, will serve as Academic Leader for the EE Sub-Core. Dr. Cologna is an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC and Academic Director of the RRC-MSC. She is an expert in MS and is fully engaged in providing expert advisory support to Core Director Hui Chen in the design of new MS assays, trouble-shooting problematic assays, and interfacing with Dr. Minshall and other CACHET and campus members on MS, instrumentation, personnel needs and, importantly, rigor and reproducibility. Dr. Cologna received her PhD in analytical chemistry, specifically mass spectrometry from Texas A&M University, with postdoctoral training at the NIH working on proteomics of rare genetic disorders. Dr. Cologna will ensure that the P30-specific EE Sub-Core and affiliated institutional MS core facilities at UIC and UofC are an educational resource for CACHET investigators, postdoctoral fellows and staff. Dr. Cologna has a training record in MS techniques and established the annual Chicago Mass Spectrometry Day to provide MS education to regional scientists. For CACHET, Dr. Cologna works with Drs. Minshall and Prins to implement the specific aims for the EE Sub-Core, which include critical new instrumentation for analysis of heavy metals, metabolomics/small molecule identification and quantification that specifically addresses critical research needs highlighted in the 2019 CACHET membership survey.

Hui Chen, PhD, is Director of the RRC-MSC and the CACHET EE Sub-Core Co-Leader at UIC. He is a technical expert in MS for heavy metals, small molecules, lipids, metabolites and proteins. Dr. Chen currently oversees daily operations of this critical MS-based core resource. Dr. Chen received his PhD in analytical chemistry and has worked with MS for >20 years, including liquid and gas chromatography and various types of MS such as FT-ICR-MS, MALDI-TOF, Q-TOF, QQQ and ICP-MS. Dr. Chen will train CACHET faculty and senior postdoctoral fellows in LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS sample preparation and analysis. He will also coordinate proteomics analyses for BEES as needed by CACHET members.

Key Accomplishments

• Purchased a Perkin Elmer NEXion-2000 ICP-MS, built a dedicated suite, and activated services for heavy metal analysis including high throughput sampling, microwave digestion and metal speciation capabilities;
• Enrolled and participated (certified) in the Quebec Multi-element External Quality Assessment Scheme to ensure service quality in metal analysis across multiple matrices;
• Established quantitative LC-MS/MS assays for pesticides, herbicides, bisphenols and PFAS;
• Purchased a new Q-Exactive Orbitrap LC-MS/MS and developed tandem mass tag protocols for quantitative proteomics analysis for protein biomarker identification and quantification;
• Established untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics assays for biomarker discovery;
• Recruited Stephanie Cologna, PhD, as Academic Leader of CACHET EE Sub-Core;
• Hired Assistant Manager for EE Sub-Core, Dr. Jayathilaka (0.5 FTE for CACHET), who will focus on metals analysis by ICP-MS and MS-based targeted assays mentioned above.
• Implemented the iLab research management and billing system, which streamlines billing for subsidized and co-pay mechanisms and tracks Core usage by CACHET members regardless of institutional affiliation.
• Established a service hub to facilitate CACHET member’s needs in multi-analyte analysis of completed in-house and outsourced services. Results are returned to users in a single report.