Thermo Fisher scientist wins inaugural HUPO Science and Technology Award

              

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011: Alexander Makarov, Director of Global Research for Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry, has received the first HUPO Science and Technology Award from the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO). The award, which honors Alexander’s principal role in developing the Orbitrap mass analyzer, was presented on September 7 at the HUPO 2011 10th World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland. Alexander, who works at our Bremen, Germany, site and has authored more than 40 papers and holds more than 40 patents worldwide, first presented the Orbitrap mass analyzer in a paper published in 2000. The Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer, introduced in 2005, was the first commercial mass spectrometer to be based on this new type of mass analyzer. Orbitrap-based mass spectrometers offer performance that was previously only available from larger, more expensive, difficult-to-operate and less reliable Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometers, enabling more widespread use of ultra-high resolution and high mass accuracy instrumentation. Orbitrap mass spectrometers have quickly become essential tools in many fields, and have enabled breakthroughs in proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins, their structures and their functions within biological systems. Only six years after commercial introduction, Orbitrap mass spectrometers are found in leading proteomics laboratories worldwide. They are used to identify both intact and enzymatically digested proteins, find proteins that have undergone chemical modification and identify the type and location of modification, all essential to the understanding of biological systems. Orbitrap mass spectrometers have been referenced in hundreds of articles in scientific journals. *************************************************************************************************