I will be establishing the liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry method of quantifying neurochemicals from insect brains at the University of Konstanz. I will be using the Waters XEVO-TQS triple quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to a Waters Acquity UPLC system.
This method is intended to be transferable to different insects. Current sub-projects include optimizing lyophilization conditions for brain dissections of ants, using in-house made stage-tips for sample cleanup and standardizing the Bradford method of protein estimation for species with large brain size variation.