Dr Gerhard Saalbach

Senior Scientist

Gerhard Saalbach has worked in research in plant biology and proteomics since 1974.

The main areas Gerhard has worked on in that time include plant tissue culture, molecular biology of plant seed storage proteins (genetic engineering, intracellular targeting), and signal transduction.

This work required the use of many different methods ranging from molecular cloning, plant transformation, protein purification, enzyme assays, to analysing ion channel activity by the patch clamp method.

He moved into the field of Proteomics in 1999 and has run the Proteomics facility at the John Innes Centre since 2007. This includes the use of three different modern mass spectrometers (Maldi-TOF/TOF, Qtof Synapt G2si, Orbitrap Fusion) and the analysis of a broad range of samples from Norwich Research Park.

Gerhard has gained experience in a broad range of proteomics methods including nanoLC on Orbitrap and Synapt to analyse complex protein extracts or co-immuno-precipitates.

He has also set up quantitative methods (iTRAQ, TMT, N15) and methods for phosphoproteomics. Ion mobility for glycan characterisation has been used on the Synapt mass spectrometer.

Recent developments include the use of Maldi and DESI imaging on the Synapt G2Si mass spectrometer with plant and microbial samples as well as human tissue.