{"454101":{"#nid":"454101","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Addressing a Systems-Level Need","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ESystems biology is a collaborative, holistic approach to understanding how life is controlled by complex molecular networks, and is based on a foundational understanding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ELiving systems (such as single or multicellular organisms) contain thousands of \u003Cem\u003Eparts\u003C\/em\u003E that work in concert to sustain life. Comprehensive, versatile analysis of these parts is needed to understand biology at a systems level. The new Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility at the Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience seeks to address this need.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s a smart and forward-thinking investment by Georgia Tech because it rightly forecasts the emerging importance of a systems-level understanding of cell biology and disease,\u201d says Matt Torres, assistant professor in the School of Biology, who has spearheaded development of the Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility with Facundo Fernandez, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWith hopes of creating a new kind of research center, Fernandez says, \u201csystems mass spectrometry is one of the main tools that enables systems biology. We can now generate terabytes of data, something we couldn\u2019t have imagined 15 years ago. What I considered cutting edge back then is now ancient.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ESystems biology brings multiple disciplines together with biology to predict how systems change over time and under different conditions, creating the potential for new kinds of scientific exploration. The new core facility stands to benefit from new technologies, but also builds on Georgia Tech\u2019s existing strengths in multiple fields of biological mass spectrometry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThe difference is, we\u2019re not looking at just a handful of molecules at once,\u201d Fernandez says. \u201cWe know that organisms employ a collection of hundreds to thousands of proteins and metabolites, working and reacting with each other. Now we can look at those molecules at once and together.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EA new core facility focused on systems mass spectrometry, is also helping to bridge an important gap, according to Torres.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EFor years, emerging \u201comics\u201d strategies and technologies (such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics) have focused on analysis of specific classes of molecules (genes, proteins, metabolites), but have been developed in isolation from one another.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EPart of this, Torres says, is due to the rarity of finding both the instrumentation and expertise necessary to accomplish more complex omics level studies. Two of these strategies, proteomics and metabolomics, use mass spectrometry as their core type of instrumentation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cOne would think this should facilitate the marriage into a single \u2018proteo-metabolomics\u2019 strategy,\u201d Torres says.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBut that\u2019s rarely the case, partly because there are limits in understanding how to properly bridge multiple forms of omics-level data to provide meaningful biological information. With the advent of the new Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility, opening in October, \u201cGeorgia Tech is investing in the infrastructure, technology and expertise necessary to bridge the omics gap,\u201d Torres says.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe state-of-the-art core facility, providing both proteomics and metabolomics services, will offer new opportunities for research and educational communities inside and outside of Georgia Tech, \u201cproviding an environment in which the next generation of omics strategies can be developed and applied to better understand both fundamental and disease properties of cellular systems,\u201d Torres says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility is administered by the Petit Institute but is housed in the Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB) and managed by David Smalley, who will work with David Gaul, a research scientist in the Fernandez lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThey have the right expertise \u2013 it\u2019s very difficult to find somebody with the right technical background,\u201d says Fernandez. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to assemble the technology and a research center. To assemble the right people and make the center into something meaningful is something else altogether.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EFor more information, contact \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dsmalley@gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EDavid Smalley\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility opening in EBB"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ESystems Mass Spectrometry core facility opening in EBB\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Systems Mass Spectrometry core facility opening in EBB"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-09-30 12:50:04","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:40","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-09-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-09-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"454091":{"id":"454091","type":"image","title":"SMS Core","body":null,"created":"1449256319","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:11:59","changed":"1475895197","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:17","alt":"SMS Core","file":{"fid":"203424","name":"sms_guys.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sms_guys_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sms_guys_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2914071,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sms_guys_0.jpg?itok=aoGfWCqg"}}},"media_ids":["454091"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}