Facundo M. Fernández, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Georgia Institute of Technology

Prof. Facundo M. Fernández received his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Buenos Aires University in 1999.  He then pursued a postdoctoral stance at the group of Prof. Richard N. Zare at Stanford University, focusing on several aspects of Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry with an emphasis on high-throughput capillary-format separation methods.  In 2002, he pursued a second postdoctoral stance at with Prof. Vicki Wysocki at the University of Arizona, developing novel tandem mass spectrometers for proteomics. In 2004 he joined the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of 46 peer-reviewed publications, and has received various recognitions, including the NSF CAREER award. His current research interests include the development of new methods and instrumentation for proteomics, metabolomics and forensics.

Presentation Description
Tools of the Trade in Microbial Proteomics: Fundamental Concepts, State-of-the Art and Future Outlook
Nucleic acid-based tools have become the “golden standard” for specific detection and quantification of target genes/organisms but more direct measures of activity are desirable.  The most direct measurement of microbial activity is to analyze the catalysts (i.e., enzymes) and/or other biomarker proteins. Traditional biochemical methods used in the quest for novel proteins require large amounts of source material (i.e., biomass) and rely on the tedious purification and analysis of enzyme systems.  These “traditional” approaches have limited sensitivity and reproducibility, are labor and time intensive, and cannot be applied in a high-throughput fashion.  Alternative, systems level approaches make extensive use of proteomics technology. Proteomics is a multi-faceted discipline enabled by high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing that generated massive genome sequence databases.  Congruent technological and conceptual advances in nano-fluidic biomolecule separation and mass spectrometry provided the seed and explosive growth of this field. Fundamental to the design and decision making process involved in proteomic workflows is a solid understanding of the potential and limitations of the analytical tools involved, some of which have reached a high level of complexity. In this talk I will present an overview of the fundamental instrumental techniques used in microbial proteomics, the basic physicochemical principles upon which they are based and give a personal view of the current state of the field, with emphasis on novel research avenues which promise to offer an even brighter future for this fast paced field.