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Richard Kay

@richard-kay

Passionate about using mass spectrometry for studying disease. Clinical mass spectrometry (bioactive peptides and proteins) in the day, average triathlete in my spare time!

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12.11.2024
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Latest posts by Richard Kay @richard-kay

We use a ball bearing to homogenise heart and muscle tissue. Have to turn the speed down or it rips through the bottom of tubes!

11.03.2026 20:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's not Anastasia Romanov is it? People pretending to be her?

16.02.2026 15:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Constanza Alcaino et al. from @ims-mrl.bsky.social present this #SymposiumReview discussing #incretin hormones and #obesity ๐Ÿ’‰ ๐Ÿ”Ž

๐Ÿ”— Read the article here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

19.12.2025 13:03 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
CamsPaMS: The Ion Exchange, New Year, new management! Welcome to the third CamsPaMS evening event . Come join us for an evening of mass spectrometry talks, food and good company.

The next CamsPaMS ion exchange meeting is on the 22nd of January. MS talks in a pub with free pizza!

First talk is on plasma proteomics changes in ex-situ perfused donor pig hearts. Identifying protein markers of successful transplantation. A fascinating story!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/camspams-t...

15.12.2025 16:56 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Descent was a fantastic multiplayer game when linked via a null modem cable, however not good to play after a few beers... ๐Ÿคข

14.12.2025 15:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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a black object is in the middle of a sandy desert ALT: a black object is in the middle of a sandy desert
02.11.2025 12:16 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Didn't see much active GLP-I in our LC-MS analyses. Vast majority is 1-36 or 1-37.

28.09.2025 11:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Characterising target organ destinations of GLP-1 receptor

www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/characterisi...

26.09.2025 11:38 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We have a potential MRC iCASE PhD with AstraZeneca using mass spectrometric techniques to identify the destination organs of endogenous and exogenous peptide hormones. This should be a really interesting PhD, using both ours and AstraZeneca's expertise and mass spectrometry instrumentation.

26.09.2025 11:38 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Where do injected peptide weight loss drugs end up in the body? What about known and currently uncharacterised peptides produced in the gut - where do they go? Want to help myself and Andreas Dannhorn from AstraZeneca try and find out how to do this?

26.09.2025 11:38 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

*Orbitrap... Stupid autocorrect...

15.08.2025 16:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Orbital Astrals and ZenoToFs are cool and all... But do you have Mass Specs??

Have a good weekend everyone!

#teammassspec

15.08.2025 16:19 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Have done that and we get a match for the de-glycosylated peptide (strong signal too) I just can't find the glycosylated one. Have even drawn up some theoretical structures of the peptide to try identify peaks..

13.08.2025 10:18 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yes. Pretty short. I can just about make out y1, 2 and 3..

13.08.2025 09:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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I have a clearly glycosylated peptide, which I think is an elusive peptide I am after, but it gives almost no peptide fragments. I asked ChatGPT for some help interpreting glycopeptide MS/MS spectra, it generated this abomination.. I think our jobs are secure for a little longer yet...

13.08.2025 08:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The last ticket machine at Ely station printing the orange tickets has betrayed me.

Printing out the stupid slippery QR tickets that are 2.5 times the size of the old ones... Grrr..

07.08.2025 06:48 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Interestingly - metformin is being investigated as a prophylactic for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. It does this by raising GDF15 prior to its meteoric plasma spike during the gestational period.

05.08.2025 12:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Mounjaro is a clever peptide, a mixture of three.. GIP, GLP-1 and a peptide from lizard venom!

05.08.2025 11:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This becomes worse when they come off and put weight on again - having lost muscle mass in the weight loss process.

The BMJ released an article about this recently.

Weight loss treatment should come with exercise as well to stave off muscle loss..

05.08.2025 07:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

They are amazing - they way they have extended half lives of endogenous peptides from 3 mins to 3.5 days is phenomenal.

The issue could be that they are worried about side effects. One issue is lean muscle mass loss (as well as fat). If this is lost, then it can also be harmful.

05.08.2025 07:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I am a regular volunteer for our studies, but we are unlikely to get ethics to dose healthy subject with them.

The switching off of "food noise" in some people is very effective, but in those who don't have this it could be dangerous.

Apparently, when you stop taking them, the voices return.

05.08.2025 06:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Our group are doing research with both these peptides and how they change other gut hormones. We are performing clinical studies in specific disease states, however getting similar data from healthy individuals in our clinic is an issue, as with these peptides blunt appetite so much!

05.08.2025 06:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The lab next door to me use an MSD multiplex kit that can get to sub pg/mL.

Not a mass spec based approach, but it also measures lots of other interleukins as well.

04.08.2025 09:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The 1031.58 ion is a dimer of 516, which shows up if it is selected for MS/MS.

31.07.2025 08:53 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

That potentially could be an in-source dimer. They only have 1+, but are double the m/z (well, double the m/z -1)

31.07.2025 08:40 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Probably highly unlikely, but we get contaminants in our extracts (problematic bile salts..) that sometimes form in-source dimers. We see a singly charged ion of ~1031m/z, which is actually a dimer of a compound of 516 m/z. Probably highly unlikely...

31.07.2025 08:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

In these specific disease states, the plasma level finally crept above the LC-MS/MS (and immunoassay) detection limit for a little while - as with most peptides it has a maddenignly short half life.

A very hard peptide to find and analyse... a big tick against that one!!

29.07.2025 09:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Insulin Like Peptides 5 (INSL5) circulates at very low levels, it is hydrophobic, causes horrible carryover, has poor fragmentation in MS/MS, and to top it off it is only produced in the distal colon from cells that total 0.1-1% of all gut epithelial cells.

One of those peptides....

29.07.2025 09:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Discovery of role of gut hormone in chronic diarrhoea could aid development of new tests and treatments High levels of a hormone found in cells in the gut could underlie many cases of chronic diarrhoea and help explain up to 40% of cases of patients with

An article on the Cambridge University website about a challenging peptide I have worked on for over a decade.

@cabannon.bsky.social and the rest of the project team showed it was raised in plasma from patients with bile acid diarrhea and inflammatory gut diseases.

www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

29.07.2025 09:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Discovery of role of gut hormone in chronic diarrhoea could aid development of new tests and treatments High levels of a hormone found in cells in the gut could underlie many cases of chronic diarrhoea and help explain up to 40% of cases of patients with

Interview on our published paper last week describing how an identified gut hormone is involved in symptoms of patients with chronic diarrhoea:

www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

29.07.2025 07:53 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0