John Asara, PhD

Meet Dr. John Asara, our Mass Spectrometry (Proteomics, Lipidomics, Metabolomics) Core Director at BIDMC. He is also an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Michigan State University in 1999 and conducted postdoctoral research in proteomics at Harvard University.

In 2004, Dr. Asara embarked on an ambitious journey, establishing the Mass Spectrometry Facility at BIDMC with a single used instrument. Over the years, he has expanded the core into a versatile multi-omics facility, equipped with state-of-the-art Orbitrap and hybrid triple quadrupole instrumentation. This facility now encompasses proteomics, phosphoproteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, stable isotope labeling, and flux analysis.

Dr. Asara's contributions to mass spectrometry include pioneering label-free quantification methods for peptides and proteins, in-gel stable isotope labeling techniques, and cross-species analysis of immunoprecipitation tandem MS data for biomarker discovery. Notably, Dr. Asara made headlines a decade ago by sequencing collagen peptides from ancient Tyrannosaurus rex and Brachylophosaurus fossils, revealing insights into soft tissue preservation.

His expertise extends to polarity switching targeted metabolomics and untargeted lipidomics, with applications spanning diverse biological sources, including 13C/15N metabolic flux platforms. Dr. Asara's current research adopts a serial-omics approach, integrating proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics data from minimal samples into comprehensive biological models.

With an impressive portfolio of over 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts, Dr. John Asara continues to drive innovation in mass spectrometry and omics sciences.