Barry L. Karger

Director, James L. Waters Chair in Analytical Chemistry

The Barnett Institute, 341 Mugar
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA 02115
email: b.karger@neu.edu
voice: 617-373-2867
fax: 617-373-2855
Karger Research Group Page>>

Education

1960 B.S., Chemistry, MIT
1963 Ph.D. Chemistry, Cornell University

Research Interests

1.  Trace Level Comprehensive Characterization of Complex Proteins 
A.  Use of large peptide fragment analysis for high sequence coverage of
phosphorylated, glycosylated and other post-translationally modified structures. 
B.  Analysis of kinetics of phosphorylation upon stimulation by extra-cellular signals of
tyrosine kinase receptors.
C.  Determination of binding partners of receptors upon stimulation by extra-cellular
signals, e.g. drugs, after immunoprecipitation.

2.  Analysis of Complex Proteins Using a Combination of Collision Induced Dissociation
(CID) and Electron Transfer Dissociation (ETD)  
A.  Trace level analysis of phosphorylated proteins using CID and ETD
B.  Glycosylation analysis using CID for structure and ETD for site localization
C.  Studies of fragmentation of charge reduced species 

3.  Ultra-Trace Analysis of Proteomic Samples Using Very Narrow Bore LC Columns
A.  Monolithic packed columns of polystyrene divinylbenzene with 20 micron i.d.
B.  Ultra-trace analysis using 10 micron and lower porous layer open tubular (PLOT)
columns 
C.  Development of miniaturized on-line sample processing and analysis by LC/MS.

4.  Differential Quantitative Analysis of Laser Capture Micro-Dissection (LCM) Samples
from Breast Cancer Tumors 
A.  Trace analysis of LCM samples from breast cancer patients
B.  Analysis of paraffin embedded formalin fixed tissue.

5.  New Platform for Characterization of Disulfide Linkage and Glycoheterogeneity at
Specific Sites on Proteins
A.  Complete disulfide mapping of biopharmaceuticals by ETD. 
B.  Disulfide linkages in immunopurified proteins O2 stress
C.  Glycan analysis at the fmole to low pmole level of proteins.
D.  SRM analysis of glycoproteins.

6.  Discovery and Implementation of Monoclonal Antibodies as Specific Reagents for
Biomarker Analysis for Use in Clinical Diagnosis
A.  Discovery and generation of monoclonal antibodies to low-level disease specific
markers in plasma.
B.  Implementation of protein microarray monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic analysis.
C.  Elucidation of clinical relevance of discovery of disease specific biomarkers.

7.  Development of Bioinformatic Tools for Proteomic Analysis
A.  Algorithms for quantitative analysis of label-free and isotopically labeled samples
B.  Novel tools for selection and annotation of CID spectra of glycopeptides
C.  De novo peptide sequencing and identification of PTMs
D.  Integration of proteomic data with metabolic and regulatory pathways

8.  New Methodologies for Proteomic Analysis
A.  Proteomic analysis of organisms with unsequenced genomes
B.  Identification of metabolic bottlenecks in the production of important valuable anti
cancer compounds in plant cell cultures

Awards (Partial Listing)

(1)   American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography, sponsored by Supelco, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada, 1982;

(2)   American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry sponsored by the Fisher Scientific Company, 1990; 

(3)   1998 ACS Award in Separations Science and Technology sponsored by IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. and Millipore Corporation, 15th ACS National Meeting, Dallas, TX, 1998;

(4)   2002 Halasz Medal of the Hungarian Chemical Society for Chromatography and Separation Science;

(5)    2003 CaSSS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Separation Science

(6)   2004 Michael Widmer Award, sponsored by the New Swiss Chemical Society and Novartis, Salzburg, Austria 2004. 

(7)    2003 CaSSS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Separation Science

(8)    2008 Torbern Bergman Medal from the Swedish Chemical Society, Analytical Division.

(9)    2009 Marcel Golay Medal .(press release) 

(10)   Honorary Symposium for Lifetime Achievements, at HPLC 2009 (Dresden, Germany)  

Recent Publications

Jia Y, Wu SL, Isenberg JS, Dai S, Sipes JM, Field L, Zeng B, Bandle RW, Ridnour LA, Wink DA, Ramchandran R, Karger BL, Roberts DD. Thiolutin inhibits endothelial cell adhesion by perturbing Hsp27 interactions with components of the actin and intermediate filament cytoskeleton. Cell Stress Chaperones. 2009 Jul 5. [Epub ahead of print] (link)

Karger BL, Guttman A.  DNA sequencing by CE. Electrophoresis, Jun 2009; 30 Suppl 1:S196-202.(pubmed)

Lazarev AV, Rejtar T, Dai S, Karger BL. Centrifugal methods and devices for rapid in-gel digestion of proteins. Electrophoresis. Mar 2009; 30(6):966-73. (pubmed)

Jiang H, Wu SL, Karger BL, Hancock WS.  Mass spectrometric analysis of innovator, counterfeit, and follow-on recombinant human growth hormone. Biotechnol Prog. Jan-Feb 2009; 25(1):207-18. (pubmed)

Wu, Shiaw-Lin; Jiang, Haitao ; Lu, Qiaozhen ; Dai, Shujia ; Hancock, William S. and Karger, Barry L.   Mass Spectrometric Determination of Disulfide Linkages in Recombinant Therapeutic Proteins Using Online LC-MS with Electron-Transfer Dissociation   Anal. Chem.   2009 81(1):112-22   (link)

Luo Q, Rejtar T, Wu SL, Karger BL Hydrophilic interaction 10mum I.D. porous layer open tubular columns for ultratrace glycan analysis by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A., Feb 2009;1216(8):1223-31(pubmed)

Dai S, Jia Y, Wu SL, Isenberg JS, Ridnour LA, Bandle RW, Wink DA, Roberts DD, Karger BL. "Comprehensive Characterization of Heat Shock Protein 27 Phosphorylation in Human Endothelial Cells Stimulated by the Microbial Dithiole Thiolutin."  J Proteome Res. Aug 23 2008, . 7(10):4384-95   pubmed

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