LSU Professor Kermit Murray Selected Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors

Roy Paul Daniels Professor of Chemistry Kermit K. Murray has been selected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

This year’s class comprises 124 accomplished academic inventors representing 60 research universities, governmental entities and nonprofit institutes worldwide.

The Senior Member program is an exclusive award created to showcase the innovative ecosystems at NAI member institutions, like LSU, which provide the supportive environment to foster novel discoveries. Senior members are chosen from active faculty, scientists, and administrators with success in patents, licensing, and commercialization who have produced technologies that have the potential for a real impact on the welfare of society.

“It is a great honor to be selected as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors,” Murray said. “I am thankful to all the wonderful students, colleagues, and collaborators who share my passion for lasers and mass spectrometry and helped make this possible.”

“This year’s class of Senior Members is truly a testament to the outstanding innovation happening at NAI Member Institutions and what happens when the academic space encourages and celebrates invention and commercialization,” said Paul R. Sanberg, President of NAI.

Murray is a leader in the development of instruments for mass spectrometry. He has broken new ground in the sampling, measurement, and imaging of biological samples using lasers. By expanding the capabilities of mass spectrometry itself, Murray has enabled the application of this powerful technique to problems that were previously inaccessible, such as microsampling at cellular precision. And through his dedicated mentorship of students here at LSU, by routinely involving them in the creation of new technologies, he has instilled his enthusiasm for innovation in the next generation of scientists.

He began his LSU career in 2001. His many honors include LSUs Rainmaker Senior Scholar Award and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award.

Murray holds four U.S. patents in the field of mass spectrometry and is the founder of a startup company, Laser Bioanalytics. He was also instrumental in the commercialization of laser systems now in production by Opotek.

He has published over 140 scholarly articles and serves on the editorial board of Analytica Chim Acta and as editor of a mass spectrometry terminology website. Murray is a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and member of the American Chemical Society, American Society for Mass Spectrometry, International Mass Spectrometry Society, and IUPAC.

Murray and the other senior members will be celebrated at NAI’s annual conference June 16-18 in Raleigh, N.C.

About LSU’s Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization

LSU’s Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization (ITC) protects and commercializes LSU’s intellectual property. The office focuses on transferring early-stage inventions and works into the marketplace for the greater benefit of society. ITC also handles federal invention reporting, which allows LSU to receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federally funded research, and processes confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, and other agreements related to intellectual property.

About LSU’s Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development

LSU Innovation unites the university’s innovation and commercialization resources under one office, maximizing LSU’s impact on the intellectual, economic, and social development of Louisiana and beyond. LSU Innovation is focused on establishing, developing, and growing technology-based startup companies. LSU Innovation oversees LSU Innovation Park, a 200-acre business incubator that fosters early-stage tech companies, and the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, which streamlines the process of evaluating, protecting, and licensing intellectual property created by LSU researchers. LSU Innovation serves as the host organization for the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network which oversees all SBDC services across the state as well as the LSU SBDC, which provides free consulting services to small businesses across the state. LSU Innovation helps Louisiana technology companies apply for seed funding through the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grant programs. LSU Innovation educates faculty, students, and the community on entrepreneurial principles through the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program which trains innovators to consider the market opportunities for pressing scientific questions, leading to increased funding state and federal grant programs as well as potential industry partners and licensees.

Assistant Professor Faculty Position in Analytical Chemistry at LSU

Apply Online

The Department of Chemistry in the LSU College of Science seeks a tenure-track faculty member in analytical chemistry for an August 2024 start date. Candidates are required to have strong experience in analytical chemistry, broadly defined. Preference will be given to those having research interests aligned with the LSU Scholarship First Agenda and focusing on chemical analysis methods for agriculture, biomedicine, coastal environment, defense, and energy. The successful candidate will join a dynamic research environment with instrumentation resources including NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, x-ray crystallography, optical and electron microscopy, and polymer analysis and will have multiple opportunities to collaborate within the Chemistry Department and across the Louisiana State University System. A high priority for hiring is an experimentalist using NMR, especially the 700 MHz Bruker Avance Neo. Inclusiveness and diversity are critical to the success of the Department, the College of Science, and the University. The selected candidate will be expected to foster an environment that is supportive and welcoming of all groups.

ASMS 2023 Presentations

Murray Group presentations: https://kermitmurray.com/research/asms-2023/

Murray Group 2023
Murray Group 2023

MP 252 Are Native Conformations of Proteins Preserved Throughout Laser Ablation?; Neda Feizi Gilandeh1; Blessing Chisom Egbejiogu2; Kyle L. Wilhelm1; Kermit K. Murray2; Touradj Solouki1; 1Baylor University, Waco, TX; 2Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

TP 185 Protein Footprinting Using Water Photolysis; Oluwatosin A. Ogundairo; Kermit K. Murray1; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

TP 361 Localized Microsampling of Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Tissue for Proteomics; Blessing Chisom Egbejiogu; Kermit K. Murray; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

TP 250 Proteomics of Western Honeybees to Assess Colony Health; Vincent Ricigliono1; Taylar Bell2; Ally Martin1; Fabrizio Donnarumma2; Kermit K. Murray2; 1USDA-ARS, Honey BeecBreeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; 2Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

WP 428 Deep Ultraviolet Laser Ablation and Capture for Off-line Mass Spectrometry; Kadeem O Hayes1; Blessing Egbejiogu1; Neda Feizi Gilandeh2; Kelcey B. Hines1; Touradj Solouki2; Kermit K. Murray1; 1Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA; 2Baylor University, Waco, TX

WP 456 Deep Ultraviolet Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization for Native Mass Spectrometry; Kelcey B. Hines1; Neda Gilandeh2; Raul Villacob2; Touradj Solouki2; Kermit K. Murray1; 1Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA; 2Baylor University, Waco, TX

ThP 051 Social Media for Mass Spectrometry; Kermit K. Murray; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

ASMS 2023: Are Native Conformations of Proteins Preserved Throughout Laser Ablation?

MP252

Authors
Neda Feizi Gilandeh1; Blessing Chisom Egbejiogu2; Kyle L. Wilhelm1; Kermit K. Murray2; Touradj Solouki1

Institutes
1Baylor University, Waco, TX; 2Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Introduction
Native electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (n-ESI/MS) combined with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) provides an opportunity to study indigenous forms of proteins in biological samples. Recently, we reported on combining n-ESI/MS with laser ablation sample transfer (LAST) and showed that collision-induced unfolding (CIU) characteristics of proteins before and after LAST were indistinguishable. However, gas-phase CIU results could not conclusively confirm that native structures were preserved throughout the entire laser ablation process. For instance, some “denatured” proteins might fold back to their original native-like forms after solvent capture and complicate the data analysis. Here, we utilize protein denaturing/renaturing, combined with CIU, MALDI, and proteomics results to show proteins retain their original conformations throughout the laser ablation process.

Methods
A custom optic parametric oscillator system (OPO) at Louisiana State University (LSU) was used to laser ablate protein samples and ship them to Baylor University (BU) for native MS and bottom-up proteomics analyses. Stock solution for proteins were adjusted to 200 µM in a mixture of 95% 200 mM NH 4OAc:5% ACN (pH 7.3 ± 0.1). Native IM-MS, UPLC-MS, and broadband collision-induced unfolding data were acquired on a Waters Synapt G2-S system (Milford, MA) at BU. Bottom-up digestion using a single-pot solid-phase-enhanced sample preparation (SP3) method followed by UPLC-IM-MS/MS under enhanced data-independent acquisition (UPLC-HDMS E) was used for protein identification; results were further confirmed by MALDI-MS at LSU. All CIU data were extracted, plotted, and analyzed using CIU Suite 2.

Preliminary Data
As corroborated with our preliminary CIU data, denatured forms of some proteins ( e.g., Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)) could readily refold back to their native-like structures in ammonium acetate. However, denatured Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) species did not refold back to their original forms in ammonium acetate solvent. We exploited this protein aggregation property of CA along with MALDI, and bottom-up proteomics data to study the preservation of native conformations throughout the laser ablation. Broadband CIU data collected at gas-phase unfolding activation energy intervals of five volts from 10 V to 120 V for nESI and denatured-refolded proteins (in solution) yielded indistinguishable CIU curves. Unlike BSA, denatured CA proteins did not refold to their native structure and seemed to form protein aggregates. For instance, in agreement with previous native-MS reports, CA directly dissolved in native ammonium acetate yielded charge-state species +10, +9, and +8. Once the CA was dissolved in a conventional ESI solvent (~49%:~50%:~0.1% water: ACN: formic acid), denatured CA showed the presence of expected higher charge states (z >+20). However, ESI mass spectrum acquired after drying the denatured CA and redissolving it in a native solvent didn’t show any peaks corresponding to carbonic anhydrase; these results suggest that CA does not refold back to its original native structure. Moreover, the absence of any MS signal for CA in the renaturing solvent is consistent with previous findings and suggests the formation of large protein aggregates that cannot be detected in nESI; our preliminary MALDI and proteomics results are consistent with this view. Our preliminary ion mobility and CIU data for CA before and after the laser ablation yielded indistinguishable plots. Strategies for studying potential conformational changes during the laser ablation process will be presented.

Novel Aspect
Native mass spectrometry combined with bottom-up proteomics confirms preservation of protein conformations throughout the laser ablation process.

Murray Group ASMS 2023 Presentations