Cancer Sample Preparation for Mass Spectrometry

In this assignment, you will be playing an immersive online learning simulation.

Below you can read the main learning outcomes and techniques you'll practice, as well as a brief introduction and storyline to the simulation.

Once you are ready, you can start the simulation by pressing the simulation launch button/link.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the simulation, you will be able to…

• Understand the correlation between phosphorylation and cancer


• Prepare a biopsy sample for mass spectrometry

Techniques:

• Cell lysis


• Protein purification


• Enzymatic digestion


• Phosphopeptide enrichment
  
  

Take action! Cancer is on the rise, and you can help with diagnosis and treatment. In the Cancer Sample Preparation for Mass Spectrometry simulation, you will assist doctors by determining the cancer stage of a patient diagnosed with colon cancer. This is the first simulation in the Mass Spectrometry series.

Join doctors in the hospital and enter an immersive animation to see how we perform a colorectal cancer biopsy. Once back in the lab, your mission will be to extract proteins from the tumor sample. Find the equipment you need in the lab to lyse the tumor cells, denature the proteins, and perform phosphopeptide enrichment, in order to prepare the sample for mass spectrometry.   

Use the holotable to observe detailed 3D models of the molecules involved in phosphorylation. Get an understanding of the molecular principles underlying the biopsy preparation and how the phosphorylation pattern relates to cancer.   

In the end, you will analyze the results from the mass spectrometry on a graph. Will you be able to help guide the patient’s treatment by identifying their cancer stage?