Project Summary/Abstract This proposal is for a new sensitive and wider mass range LC/MS system, both to enhance the existing capabilities of our Lipidomics Core Facility and to provide a backup for the aging mass spectrometry resource to NIH funded researchers at Wayne State University. Currently mass spectrometry resources at Wayne State University are located at the Lumigen Instrumentation Center in Chemistry, the Pharmacology Core of the Karmanos Cancer Institute (KCI), the Proteomics Core, and the Lipidomics Core. However, none of the available instruments are sensitive enough to accurately quantify lipid mediators such as Specialized Pro-resolution Mediators (SPMs) that are physiologically active at picomolar concentrations. Analyzing such biomolecules in limited sample volumes that are collected from patients require sensitivity in the low femtogram range. One of the major areas of the participating faculty's research involves identification and/or quantitation of such lipid mediators of inflammation and resolution of inflammation (e.g. SPMs) in diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. Lipidomics Core Facility currently utilizes a 10-year-old LC-MS system with limited mass range (<1200 Da), insufficient to analyze a significant part of the lipidome, and sensitivity that is about 10-times lower than required for the analysis of important lipid mediators. The proposed acquisition of a linear ion-trap triple quadrupole mass spectrometry system with its high sensitivity, fast scanning, more than 5 orders of magnitude dynamic range of quantitation along with an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatographic system fills a great void in our analytical needs. Given the focus of the users on the identification of novel small molecule biomarkers of inflammation and related chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, this mass spectrometer is urgent and vital for our research projects. Additionally, this instrument will catalyze the evolution of our Lipidomics core facility into a full-fledged metabolomics core at Wayne State University.