The purpose of the present project is to characterize the adductomics, which means the human exposure to reactive compounds/metabolites measured as adducts to biomacromolecules. In this project we focus on adducts with serum albumin and hemoglobin in blood. These proteins are present in large amounts, are easy to isolate, and have well-defined life-span, and protein adducts do not undergo repair.
The ultimate goal is to use this approach to identify the exposure to reactive compounds/metabolites and the environmental factors contributing to chronic diseases. Risk factors for cancer, but also risk factors for contact allergy are focus for this project.
The specific aims of the project are to:
– Develop sensitive analytical techniques for mass spectrometric detection and identification of unknown protein adducts.
– Apply the developed methods for the identification of unknown protein adducts in humans.
– Identify the origin of the detected adducts through complementary experiments and synthetic work.
