PRF was established in 2007 to provide state-of-the-art instrumentation, technical expertise, and advanced informatics support for the application of mass spectrometry-based proteomics in biological research. PRF is managed by eminent scientists each with over two decades of experience in application of proteomics technologies to answer various basic and translational research questions. The PRF has already developed a sustainable, cost-effective, fee-for-service model recovering near 100% operational cost for the past 8 years. It has a proven track record of providing high quality service as evidenced by its contribution to over 150 publications, including many high-impact journals like Cancer Cell, Nature, Nature Communications, etc., and support for numerous successful grant applications from various funding agencies. PRF has been working with well over 60 investigators per year, from various departments within the Medical School and outside. In recognition of these successes, PRF is a designated Proteomics Shared Resource for University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research (2015-present) as well as Rogel Cancer Center (2018-present).  Over the last several years, PRF has helped to bring new funding to the University by providing Letters of Support for a significant number of individual external grant applications.

The goal of the PRF is to assist researchers in designing proteomic experiments, maintain state-of-the-art instrumentation, provide technical expertise and bioinformatic support during both discovery and validation phases of proteomic experiments in a cost-effective and timely manner.

During the discovery phase, the services offered by the PRF include identification of proteins from multiple sources, such as Coomassie and Silver-stained gels, identification of post-translational modifications, and shot-gun proteomic analysis of complex mixtures using either one- or two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). Relative quantitation (differential proteomic analysis) using stable isotope labeling of amino acids in culture (SILAC), isotope-coded affinity tags (eg. TMT) and label-free spectral counting are also offered.

For validation of findings from the discovery phase (especially projects related to biomarker discovery), a researcher may wish to employ a more targeted approach and expand the sample cohort. The PRF provides support for relative and absolute quantification (AQUA) of multiple analytes using Parallel Reaction Monitoring (PRM).