Experimental Design

Good experimental design is the foundation to any mass spectrometry analysis. The facilities core director and staff provide initial experimental consultation prior to sample collection and experimental advice throughout all stages of your mass spectrometry projects to help ensure you receive high-quality, reproducible data from your mass spectrometry experiments.  

Initial consultations prior to beginning any new project are instrumental to the success of the project. Here we aim to establish the goals of the project with all decisions couched in the scientific questions you wish to answer. We discuss the feasibility of the project, suitability of currently available methods and protocols, potential optimization strategies, sample collection and preparation methods, the need for biological and technical replicates, potential methods of mass spectrometry, data, and statistical analysis, and finally your timeline and budget. Our goal in these collaborative consultations is to find out the best way to help you answer your scientific questions using our mass spectrometry know-how.  

These initial consultations are not the only time where we offer experimental design advice. We are happy to provide users with advice on published methods for sample preparation and data analysis – and in fact encourage users to ask us any questions they may have about new techniques or experimental procedures they read about in the literature. We may already have a similar protocol available for them to use or can help adapt protocols for our instrumentation.  

Considering the importance of good experimental design to successful mass spectrometry experiments, all consultation and experimental design services are available to users of the facilities at no cost. If you have little experience in using mass spectrometry techniques in your research, but think it would help answer questions in your research, we are more than happy to talk to you about the possibilities available to you in the facilities!