Where do injected peptide weight loss drugs end up in the body? What about known and currently uncharacterised peptides produced in the gut - where do they go? Want to help myself and Andreas Dannhorn from AstraZeneca try and find out how to do this?

Orbital Astrals and ZenoToFs are cool and all... But do you have Mass Specs?? Have a good weekend everyone! #teammassspec

I have a clearly glycosylated peptide, which I think is an elusive peptide I am after, but it gives almost no peptide fragments. I asked ChatGPT for some help interpreting glycopeptide MS/MS spectra, it generated this abomination.. I think our jobs are secure for a little longer yet...

The last ticket machine at Ely station printing the orange tickets has betrayed me. Printing out the stupid slippery QR tickets that are 2.5 times the size of the old ones... Grrr..

An article on the Cambridge University website about a challenging peptide I have worked on for over a decade. @cabannon.bsky.social and the rest of the project team showed it was raised in plasma from patients with bile acid diarrhea and inflammatory gut diseases. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Interview on our published paper last week describing how an identified gut hormone is involved in symptoms of patients with chronic diarrhoea: www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

And here is the paper on INSL5. LC-MS/MS analysis generated similar concentration data compared to an ELISA. The peptide circulates at 100's of pg/mL in disease state, and almost undetectable in control individuals.

Well - we finally found insulin like peptide 5 in blood using LC-MS/MS. Have been working on this since 2013 - when at my old lab! It is raised in patients with bile acid diarrhea - and when you dose bile rectally... Paper just accepted in Gut - will be out soon! Stil very low ~ 100 pg/mL

Oh dear... Luckily not my instrument!

Early TV robots...

Anyone interested in using mass spectrometry to identify and quantify peptides and proteins in plasma, tissue and organoid cell systems? I have a Research Assistant position in my lab at the Institute of Metabolic Science - Metabolic Research Laboratories. Apply here: lnkd.in/dCxhS3GN

Happy world bike day! 19 mile bike followed by a 5km run with the Ely Tri Club gang. Nice end to the day.

It is World Bicycle Day today!!! Glorious but windy here in the Fens. Get out and pedal if you can. Great for fitness and mental health!

Question for the triple quad users out there. Has anyone used the precursor ion scan mode to identify sialic acid containing peptides using the oxonium ion m/z of 274.09 as the product? Have only used precursor ion scan function twice in 25 years of using mass spectrometers... #teammassspec

Great to have been part of this research, and good news that trials are underway on drugs to help reduce the symptoms of HG.

Trains were stuffed back to Ely from Camvridge today, so what should you do?? Go down the pub with friends and talk about mass spectrometry over a few beers!!

An interview of my colleague @cabannon.bsky.social discussing the kind of work we are supporting at the @ims-mrl.bsky.social Using LC-MS/MS to analyse gut peptides in blood is a real challenge - but a fascinating one. Hopefully we can use this technique to improve the diagnosis of GI disease.

Typical.. first time we have had a partial solar eclipse and it's really sunny here in the UK. Thank heavens for Skymaps.. Mad that so many planets are in view.. maybe the fifth element will be needed soon...

Winners of the amino acid quiz at the CamsPaMS Ion Exchange got a unique prize.. A tin of Alphabetti Spaghetti... Rimmer would not be happy!

The first CamsPaMS evening session - The Ion Exchange went off with a bang last night. An amino acid based quiz and ice breaker followed by a proteomics talk and then gut hormone peptidomics talk. The knitted gut went down well! Look out for the next one!

✨ TWO MONTHS TO GO until #pint25 ✨ 📍 45 locations across the UK 🔬 Hundreds of passionate scientists and motivated team members 🎯 Bringing science to you 🗓 19th-21st May 2025 Be first to know when tickets go live: 👉 eepurl.com/TbbVX 🗺Locations pintofscience.co.uk

Our Translational Proteomics team is recruiting a Senior Scientist! We're based in Gaithersburg, MD, USA. A great opportunity to apply your skills to clinical trial samples, helping to develop new oncology drugs. Please share! astrazeneca.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/Careers/job/...

The second CamsPaMS conference is fast approaching. Come join your fellow mass spectrometrists at the gorgeous Babraham institute for a free meeting on the 3rd of April. www.eventbrite.com/e/camspams-2...

We have a postdoc position available in our team to undertake a UKRI-funded project to develop a new cultured skeletal muscle model for studying glc metabolism and insulin action. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50597/ @ims-mrl.bsky.social Please RT. Please email if interested.

“Words Matter” – Rethinking the Language of Obesity. Using respectful, non-stigmatizing language (like “people living with obesity” instead of “obese people”) creates a more supportive, science-based conversation. Stigma only makes it harder for people to seek help.

Researchers at the @ims-mrl.bsky.social are trying to understand how signals between the mother and baby in pregnancy cause increased obesity risk, & whether changes in pregnancy eg increased exercise, can stop the inter-generational transmission of obesity risk. 👇 doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

@ims-mrl.bsky.social researchers are exploring how weight loss-through diet, precision medication, or surgery-can improve long-term health outcomes in children and adults. The Farooqi lab and colleagues showed setmelanotide can manage obesity in patients < 6 years old. doi.org/10.1016/S221...

@ims-mrl.bsky.social studies have highlighted how the body adapts to weight loss by increasing hunger hormones, making it difficult to sustain long-term changes. #ObesityIsNotAChoice #WorldObesityDay #ChangingSystems #WordsMatter

@ims-mrl.bsky.social research by Dr Sam Lockhart, MilanMuso and @stephenorahilly.bsky.social discovered some triglyceride in liver cells may prevent damage by cholesterol, suggesting we need to pay attention to the role of cholesterol in liver health. doi.org/10.1038/s422... #WorldObesityDay

@ims-mrl.bsky.social and Dept of Psychiatry, Cambridge research from Dr Stephanie Brown and Professor Paul Fletcher, showed that the volume of the hypothalamus is significantly increased in people who are overweight or obese 👇👇 doi.org/10.1016/j.ni...

👉 @ims-mrl.bsky.social research on the incretin hormone, GIP, led by Dr Jo Lewis from the Gribble/Reimann lab explored how these natural signals impact weight regulation and appetite control. doi.org/10.1016/j.mo... #ObesityIsNotAChoice #WorldObesityDay #ChangingSystems #WordsMatter

Since it is #worldobesityday and I work at the @ims-mrl.bsky.social I thought I would share some #proteomics work we have done on our @sciex.bsky.social 7600 ZenoToF. We had a #BMSS summer student last year, and he extracted and analysed plasma samples from lean and obese volunteers.

Anyone interested in working with me at Institute of Metabolic Science - Metabolic Research Laboratories, University of Cambridge, on how AMGEN's new obesity drug MariTide works? I have a 3 year postdoc position available! Deadline March 31st! please share www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50529/

The CamsPaMS team are looking to host a series of evening mass spectrometry seminars featuring talks by early career scientists. The seminar series will be called "CamsPaMS: The Ion Exchange", the first of which is on the 20th of March.

Our IonKey column has now passed 5000 injections. Most of these are plasma peptide measurements including CCK21-44, insulin, c-peptide, GIP 1-42, GIP 3-42 and the poorly researched Motilin peptide (all of which are mainly ~10 to 1500pg/mL).

Fen run this morning, shoulder is getting better (can now lift it past the Musk angle). Saw a family of deer in the field, and found a good puddle to clean off the mud.

The second meeting is available for booking! Unfortunately I won't be able to make it - being an average triathlete in Mallorca!!

Just spent 30 minutes in an MRI machine. We are looking to measure gut peptides and see how they correlate with gut movement. Was really warm - and I fell asleep! 😂 I was a "healthy control" 😂

Our #Peptidomics analysis of MAFLD and MASH is out. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... We initially performed proteomics analysis of MASLD/MASH samples, but the data looked a little odd to me. We then performed a Peptidomics analysis and that showed what the weirdness was!

Frosty run in Ely today. Love running in the Fens.

Beautiful cold run in the Fens this morning -5°C. Camera photos never do sunrise justice

Our pregnancy cohort analysis over Christmas turned up trumps! Loads of pregnancy related proteins - and peptides identified on our 7600 ZenoTof and PEAKS search. Favourite hit - corticosteroid releasing hormone. Circulates at ~ 100 pg/mL! Oh - and #GDF15 showed up again!

DIA-NN 2.0 release is almost ready, will come with some big news. One is scanning methods support, at the moment doing some tuning of the algorithm using Synchro-PASEF data :) Turns out, 'Q1 information' is really helpful for gaining peptidoform confidence. Likely also channel-confidence in plexDIA.

For everyone in the Cambridge area interested in metabolomics or lipidomics: CaMeL talks, January 23rd. Please register on www.mrl.ims.cam.ac.uk/events/camel...

FINALLY... Beat my 15 year old dragon crazy daughter at Wyrmspan. A great game!

Phew! Green lights on all the M-Class modules! Samples all ran OK.

When did After 8's become so small???

Been working with INSL5 for years. We could see the A and B chain on the U3000 and Orbi system. Could see the B chain but never the A chain on M-Class and TQ-XS system. Baffled me for years. Turns out we needed TFA in the load buffer to see the A chain 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 Happy Christmas all! #peptidomics

The @ims-mrl.bsky.social #peptidomics and #proteomics core out for a last coffee and cake at the astrazeneca coffee shop before Christmas. Have a good one all!

Currently working on a protein that if it does what I hope it does, I can name it! How cool will that be!! We are also working on the mouse variant, which we are yet to detect using trypsin and LC-MS/MS. It is sooo frustrating!!! Time to break out the alternative enzymes again...