About

Erin Baker is a faculty member associated with the Curriculum in Toxicology & Environmental Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on how the environment affects human health, with particular emphasis on molecular biomarkers, analytical separations, high throughput screening, mass spectrometry, and ion mobility spectrometry. She works to develop and optimize analytical and computational approaches for measuring chemical exposures, which are challenging due to the complexity and diversity of anthropogenic molecules encountered in daily life and their transformations within the body. Her group employs various separation methods, including automated solid phase extractions, liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry, and mass spectrometry, to analyze thousands of longitudinal samples, enabling the assessment of molecular changes related to chemical exposures. Additionally, her team creates computational software using R, Python, Java, and machine learning to evaluate and visualize molecular data, facilitating improved data mining and association studies within populations. Erin Baker's background includes a B.S. in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Montana State University, where she conducted undergraduate research using ion mobility spectrometry. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California – Santa Barbara, evaluating DNA structures through IMS-MS measurements. Her postdoctoral work and subsequent scientific research were conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She is passionate about promoting STEM careers and community engagement, actively participating in conferences and outreach activities.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Chemistry
• Chromatography
• Biochemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Computational biology
• Physical chemistry
• Biophysics
• Bioinformatics

Selected publications

• Data for EMSL Project 47418 from July 2023

  OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2023

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Computer Science
  DOI

• Reverse metabolomics for the discovery of chemical structures from humans

  Nature · 2023 · 163 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Computational biology

  . Culture of bacteria belonging to the Bifidobacterium, Clostridium and Enterococcus genera produced these bile amidates. Because searching repositories with tandem mass spectrometry spectra has only recently become possible, this reverse metabolomics approach can now be used as a general strategy to discover other molecules from human and animal ecosystems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Stability and Dissociation of Adeno-Associated Viral Capsids by Variable Temperature-Charge Detection-Mass Spectrometry

  Analytical Chemistry · 2022 · 48 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Biophysics
  • Chromatography

  Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors have emerged as gene therapy and vaccine delivery systems. Differential scanning fluorimetry or differential scanning calorimetry is commonly used to measure the thermal stability of AAVs, but these global methods are unable to distinguish the stabilities of different AAV subpopulations in the same sample. To address this challenge, we combined charge detection-mass spectrometry (CD-MS) with a variable temperature (VT) electrospray source that controls the temperature of the solution prior to electrospray. Using VT-CD-MS, we measured the thermal stabilities of empty and filled capsids. We found that filled AAVs ejected their cargo first and formed intermediate empty capsids before completely dissociating. Finally, we observed that pH stress caused a major decrease in thermal stability. This new approach better characterizes the thermal dissociation of AAVs, providing the simultaneous measurement of the stabilities and dissociation pathways of different subpopulations.

  PublisherDOI

• Surface Modified Nano-Electrospray Needles Improve Sensitivity for Native Mass Spectrometry

  Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry · 2022 · 15 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Chromatography
  • Organic chemistry

  Native mass spectrometry (MS) and charge detection-mass spectrometry (CD-MS) have become versatile tools for characterizing a wide range of proteins and macromolecular complexes. Both commonly use nanoelectrospray ionization (nESI) from pulled borosilicate needles, but some analytes are known to nonspecifically adsorb to the glass, which may lower sensitivity and limit the quality of the data. To improve the sensitivity of native MS and CD-MS, we modified the surface of nESI needles with inert surface modifiers, including polyethylene-glycol. We found that the surface modification improved the signal intensity for native MS of proteins and for CD-MS of adeno-associated viral capsids. Based on mechanistic comparisons, we hypothesize that the improvement is more likely due to an increased flow rate with coated ESI needles rather than less nonspecific adsorption. In any case, these surface-modified needles provide a simple and inexpensive method for improving the sensitivity of challenging analytes.

  PublisherDOI

• Data for EMSL Project 48784 from December 2020

  OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2020

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01ES022190

  NIH · $2.2M · 2018

• NIH Grant R56AG063885

  NIH · $786k · 2022

• Project 4

  NIH · $14.7M · 2022–2027

• Core of Advanced Platform Technologies Used for Remediation and Exploration

  NIH · $12.6M · 2022–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Kristin Burnum-Johnson

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  9760 shared

• Bobbie‐Jo Webb‐Robertson

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  6369 shared

• Julia Laskin

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  6356 shared

• Janet Jansson

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  5670 shared

• Aaron Wright

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  3628 shared

• Christina Stevenson

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  3587 shared

• Carrie Nicora

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  3054 shared

• Stephen Callister

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  3046 shared

Education

• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemistry

  University of California Santa Barbara

  2005

• B.S. in Chemistry and minor in Mathematics, Chemistry

  Montana State University Bozeman

  2001

Awards & honors

• Leon and Bertha Golberg Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Leon Golberg Memorial Travel Award

Similar researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Barry M. Popkinh-170
• Cynthia Bulikh-134
• Doug Perkinsh-115
• Paul Watkinsh-107
• Linda Adairh-106