The Mass Spectrometry Facility was grounded in a co-operation of the University Vienna, the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Intercell Inc. in May 2000. The facility is situated on the Campus Vienna Biocenter, which is one of the main molecular biology and biotechnology research clusters in Austria .

Five university departments participated in the organization and setup of the Facility: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Structural Biology and Department of Analytical Chemistry. The aim of this co-operation was to generate a central, specialized facility with high end analytical and computational resources for the analysis of biopolymers (proteins and oligonucleotides). Although the structure of the university has changed in the last years the strong and fruitful co-operation first of all with the Departments of Genetics, Biochemistry and Medical Biochemistry at the Campus and several departments outside the Campus indicates the importance of such a facility. The MS Facility of the Max Perutz Laboratories shares its laboratory place partly with the Mass Spectrometry Group of the IMP which ensures a close and intensive co-operation and exchange of know-how. As a further strengthening of the scientific relations, a Christian Doppler Laboratory was grounded in May 2005 with the participation of both MS facilities. The aim of this project is to revise and develop biochemical and mass spectrometrical methods for the quantification of certain post translational modifications.

©ECs February 2007