Michael L. Gross, 2020 Recipient
Dr. Michael L. Gross is the recipient of the 2020 ASMS John B. Fenn Award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, for innovative and integrative MS-based footprinting for structural proteomics. The development of Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins (FPOP), whereby covalent modifications of proteins can occur with hydroxyl radicals on the microsecond time scale, enables the study of protein conformation, folding, aggregation, and the identification of extracellular domains.
Additionally, Dr. Gross combined MS with hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) as a complement to FPOP for the determination of protein affinity, and he has developed protein chemistry methods for glycine ethyl ester (GEE) footprinting of side chains of aspartate and glutamate. Implementing these methods in combination has allowed significant insights to be gained with regard to many proteins with important therapeutic and clinical implications. His integrative approach is setting the standard for structural proteomics, as evidenced by its wide application in the pharmaceutical industry for the characterization of therapeutic proteins.
Dr. Gross is Professor of Chemistry and of Immunology and Internal Medicine (School of Medicine), Washington University in St. Louis.