# Integrated Platform for Mass-Spectrometric Studies of Protein Structure

> **NIH NIH R42** · PROTEIN METRICS, LLC · 2020 · $613,930

## Abstract

Summary
Technology for studying the higher order structure (HOS) and interactions of biomolecules is a
highlighted NIGMS SBIR/STTR research topic. Mass-spectrometric methods for studying
HOS include hydroxyl radical footprinting as well as chemical methods to covalently label
amino acid side-chain functional groups, and also hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) on
protein backbone amides. These methods require only small amounts of not-necessarily-pure
material, and can study conformation and dynamics of proteins in solution with or without
ligands. Mass spectrometric methods are especially well suited to biopharma comparability
and epitope mapping studies. Currently, there is no software that can analyze mass
spectrometric data from both covalent labeling and HDX experiments, even though the two
methods both probe solvent accessibility and, if combined, would give finer resolution and
greater confidence. The outcome will be vendor-neutral commercial software with advanced
analytical and reporting capabilities that can handle both HDX and covalent labeling
experiments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9909995
- **Project number:** 2R42GM121133-02
- **Recipient organization:** PROTEIN METRICS, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** MARSHALL Wayne BERN
- **Activity code:** R42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $613,930
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9909995

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9909995, Integrated Platform for Mass-Spectrometric Studies of Protein Structure (2R42GM121133-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9909995. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*