SPECIATION ANALYSIS OF TRACE AND ULTRATRACE ELEMENTS IN LIVING ORGANISMS: NEW ADVANCES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PROTEOMICS
The main goal of this Project is to allow to continue the basic and instrumental research carried out by the Analytical Spectrometry Group of Oviedo´s University. The general objective of the Project here is to tackle modern needs and analytical challenges posed by the problem of Trace (μg . ml-1) and Ultratrace (ng . ml-1) Speciation Analysis of Metals and Semimetals in Living Organisms (and, to a lesser extent, the “in-situ” real-time monitoring of toxic metals).
That general objective demands differential analytical tools. Therefore, its development will be pursued along three different main research lines (constituting three partial objectives of this Project) already consolidated in our Group:
A) Development of Phosphorescent Sensors (RTP), with Fibre Optics, for “in-situ” monitoring of toxic metals.
B) Development of new couplings and interfaces Chromatography (or CE)-Plasmas (mainly ICP- and GD-MS) and application to tackle modern metal and semimetals speciation problems in living organisms.
Research and development of alternative Mass Analyzers and Ionization Sources to increase the chemical information level achieved or a more complete characterization of associations metal-biomolecules (e.g. Metalloproteins) in living organisms.