In modern-day science, a university needs an up-to-date mass spectrometer to get efficient results in research.

The expensive analytical equipment uses a neutral gas to collide with a compound or molecule, such as a protein, to split it apart. Then it measures the physical, chemical or biological properties, including the fragment's mass and charge, to determine the structure of proteins and compounds.

The spectrometer is to the biochemist what an X-ray machine is to the radiologist and the oven is to the gourmet chef.

That helps to explain the recent excitement at Duquesne University's Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

It has received a $574,500 National Science Foundation grant to purchase a tandem mass spectrometer, which will be used in conjunction with the university's existing nuclear magnetic resonance machine, time-of-flight mass spectrometer and X-ray crystallography to upgrade its laboratory.

"I'm an instrument junkie myself," said Mitchell Johnson, an associate professor of chemistry at Duquesne. "I'm pretty excited because of the opportunity to do stuff we've wanted to do for some time now. That, in and of itself, is cool."

Dr. Johnson said he expects the spectrometer to be in place in December.

Duquesne had older-model spectrometers, but the technology has advanced. The new one will include a liquid chromatograph that will separate molecules so the spectrometer can break them into pieces to be analyzed.

"It's amazing what it can do," Dr. Johnson said, noting the equipment's use in understanding the structure of proteins and other compounds.

Students and faculty will use the spectrometer for in-house research without having to pay an outside facility to do the analysis, he said. Dr. Johnson said he plans to use the new equipment to continue his study of fat molecules, or lipids, to trace metabolic changes that possibly occur in mental disorders.

The spectrometer also will be used to analyze environmental samples, he said.