"Mass spectrometry is a laboratory workhorse that's used for everything from studies of air pollution to serving as a tool for the detection of explosives in counter-terrorism efforts," said Beauchamp, a physical chemist and professor at the California Institute of Technology. "The basic technique is one that weighs the molecule. But what we've done over the last four decades is to develop methods to determine more about molecules and ions than just how much they weigh."
Among his research team's new tools is what Beauchamp calls a 'molecular mousetrap' -- a device designed to trap only molecules with certain shapes. "It's as if we can trap gray mice and let the white ones roam freely," he said. Chemists can use the technique to pluck out and analyze a particular kind of molecule from a mixture such as blood.
"A lot of times you'd like to identify a specific protein in a large mixture -- say, to detect a protein involved in HIV infection," he said. "So we're working on compounds that have unique chemical patterns, ones that complement those of equally unique proteins. When they find each other we can detect the signal, and thus the protein."
Beauchamp added that he hopes to apply these and other ideas being developed in his laboratory to analyze the protein content of a single human cell.
An amateur pilot who has also served on the White House Commission for Aviation Security and Safety, Beauchamp was first intrigued by electronics as a boy. In school, however, he found that chemistry, physics and mathematics "came easy," he said, and eventually steered toward a career that combined all three fields.
Beauchamp received his undergraduate degree from Caltech in 1964 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1967. He is a member of the ACS division of physical chemistry.
The Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry is sponsored by Bruker Daltonics Inc.