People

Dr. Kenneth W. Lee received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at BYU and his PhD in Chemistry at Purdue University. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry. As a graduate student and postdoc, he performed hardware and electronic modifications on a variety of custom-built and commercial mass spectrometers. Coupled to nano-electrospray ionization, these modifications facilitated unique gas-phase experiments involving intact ions generated from large protein complexes. These experiments include gas-phase ion/ion reactions, in which biomolecular cations react with reagent anions through coulombic interactions; ion/photon reactions, in which biomolecular ions are activated by electromagnetic radiation; and ion soft landing, which is deposition of ions on a surface in the mass spectrometer. He used negative-stain and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy imaging to produce the first 3D models of protein complexes recovered from a mass spectrometer.

Dr. Lee joined the BYU department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2023. He continues to develop mass spectrometry instrumentation for analyzing and characterizing large biomolecular structures. Currently, his group is making modifications to a Waters Cyclic IMS mass spectrometer to perform ion/ion reactions and soft-landing. The combination of these unique approaches to the high resolution ion mobility and mass spectrometry provided by the Cyclic IMS will facilitate characterization of structural and conformational heterogeneity present in large biomolecular complexes.