Interfaculty Mass Spectrometry Center (IMSC)

Samples for MS analysis can be submitted by sending them to the IMSC facility in the ERIBA building (lab 3226.0650) or by sending an email to the IMSC email address.

Please contact us before sending samples to discuss the desired sample preparation and analysis details.

Expert support
All MS instruments and associated equipment are operated, supported and supervised by one or more IMSC technicians. The technicians all have broad MS experience and often have in-depth knowledge on specific subjects or methods. The general policy of the IMSC is to provide high-level service to every scientist and research group from the RuG and UMCG to the best of our abilities. Exploitation of the IMSC, notably repair and maintenance of MS equipment, and costs of MS-specific consumables is covered by user fees (standard fee is 40 euro per hour; or 80 euro per proteomics sample; per Jan 1st 2023). For external customers (non-RuG or UMCG) overhead and personnel costs are added and significantly higher user fee charged (details on request). This has proved to be a sustainable financial model for more than 15 years, and leaves room for small investments and instrument upgrades.

Costs for internal and external customers
For services provided by the IMSC, e.g. repair and maintenance of MS equipment and the use of MS-specific consumables, user fees will be charged. As from 1 January 2019, the standard fee is €35 per hour. External (non-UG or non-UMCG) customers will also be charged for overhead and personnel costs (details will be provided on request). For more than 15 years, this has proven to be a sustainable financial model that leaves room for small investments and instrument upgrades.

Services
The type of services, contribution, and research collaboration offered depends on the research project and the input from the research group:

• Scientists who request occasional samples analyses, without the need for extensive method development, will usually collaborate directly with the IMSC technical staff and pay an hourly user fee for the analyses.
• Scientists with research questions requiring extensive method development will first discuss the approach and workload with the head of the IMSC. Users will have to make at least a partial financial contribution to the method development and pay the regular hourly user fee for instrument usage. If long-term developments (≥ 3 months) are required with the ability to enhance the IMSC competencies, a fixed fee can be agreed upon that will be lower than costs based on the hourly user fee. It is strongly recommended that users with such requests discuss their projects with the IMSC before applying for funding and that they take the costs into account when planning their project budget.
• Scientists with research questions requiring the use of cutting-edge MS and related techniques to measure biological and/or clinical samples on a structural basis (e.g. biomarker discovery projects, systems biology projects, specific bioinformatics development and analysis) will have a research collaboration with the IMSC. In general, this means that the IMSC is already involved when the grant application is being submitted and that the costs of the use of instrumentation, personnel, and consumables are included in the project budget. Applications for grants for such projects may also include dedicated instrumentation, which will be accommodated in the IMSC and made available to these users first.
• Although scientists and commercial parties from outside the UG and the UMCG will be treated in the same way as internal academic users, the user fees will also be based on salary costs and instrument depreciation or on agreed-upon contract criteria as mentioned above.