Robert “Bob” Hettich has spent much of his career at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrating how high-performance analytical measurements, in particular mass spectrometry, can yield remarkable insights into the mysteries of tiny microbes and their impact on larger systems such as plants and humans.
He uses mass spectrometry, a technology that measures the mass/charge of ions generated from molecules, to explore cellular machinery and processes that reveal how bacteria, fungi and viruses associate and interact with each other and their hosts. His research on biomolecules from complex environments has enabled fundamental insights into how these microbes function and adapt in microbiomes. This information helps guide numerous applications, such as how microbial consortia — teams of microbes that work together — enhance plant health and can be used to support the domestic bioeconomy.
Hettich is an ORNL Corporate Fellow and leads the lab’s Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry group. He is widely recognized for his mass spec expertise, and is a founder and global leader in the field of metaproteomics, the identification and analysis of the proteins and peptides produced by microbial communities.
Hettich collaborates with numerous researchers at ORNL and other institutions to characterize how microbes interact with each other, influence soil nutrient flow, affect bioremediation, aid the production of biofuels and bioproducts, help plant hosts adapt to conditions such as drought, nutrient stress, disease and pests, and how they can influence or respond to human health conditions. He has also studied higher order protein structure, exploring the three-dimensional shape and folding of proteins that determine how they function and interact with other molecules, to better understand biological processes.
Hettich’s work is supported by a variety of DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program projects, including the ORNL-led Center for Bioenergy Innovation, or CBI, and the Plant-Microbe Interfaces Science Focus Area, or PMI SFA.
Across the span of his 39-year career, Hettich has been involved in the development and demonstration of several generations of biological mass spectrometry technologies at ORNL. He is currently overseeing the establishment of new cutting-edge mass spec equipment that can significantly accelerate ORNL discoveries for better plants and microbes.
Q: What are the new mass spec capabilities at ORNL?
We’ve just installed two new high-performance mass spectrometers at ORNL, which should provide a big leap forward in our capabilities for faster scanning speed, higher resolution and greater sample throughput.
Our current mass spec instruments scan at a frequency of 8 Hertz, generating eight mass spectra per second. The primary new mass spec instrument operates at 200 Hz, yielding 200 mass spectra per second, for a 2500% increase over our existing equipment. Additionally, this instrument provides ultra-high mass resolution of 480,000, allowing for incredibly precise measurements of complex molecules like proteins and metabolites. A second new mass spec instrument we’ve acquired can scan up to 40 Hz, enabling faster speeds over current instruments while providing high mass measurement capabilities for interrogating intact proteins and other biomolecules.
We also have new computing capabilities directly interfaced to these mass systems to handle the influx of data from these significant upgrades, providing real-time data collection, analysis and storage. As our datasets expand, they will continue to fuel ORNL’s artificial intelligence and high-performing computing capabilities to further expand our knowledge of complex biological systems.
Because we are one of the few groups internationally recognized for driving and developing metaproteomics — the large-scale study of proteins produced by entire microbial communities — part of my job is to keep the technology toolset moving forward. We want to continue expanding our ability to make the best measurements possible and thereby open new doors of understanding that have not been previously possible.
Only a few of these instruments are in use around the world, and most are focused on human health research. The combination of our ORNL science missions and expertise in plant and microbial biology and these new instruments makes us very unique among research institutions. These capabilities reinforce our standing as a top-tier institution for metaproteomics, boosting our innovations for advanced fuels, chemicals and materials, and natural ecosystem resilience.
This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "Robert Hettich: Decoding biological complexity with next-gen mass spectrometry" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news
