focus on Mass Spectrometry & Awards
This year’s hot topic appeared to be that of Tandem Mass Spectroscopy judged by virtue of the fact that all three ASMS awards went to scientists who had worked in that area. For the uninitiated this is a powerful technique, which can be utilised for structure elucidation and in one case was found to be particularly useful for peptide analysis and study during proteomics studies and various configuerational changes undergone during ionisation bombardment.
The award for distinguished contribution in Mass Spectroscopy went to Dr Robert J. Cotter from the John Hopkins School of Medicine for his work in the invention and development of tandem time-of-flight (TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry.
The Biemann medal went to Dr Bela Paizs from The German Cancer Research Center for his work on detailed characterisation studies of peptide ion structures and dissociation mechanisms. The Ron A. Hites award for outstanding research publications in JASMS went to T-Y Huang et al for their paper entitled ‘Top Down Tandem Mass Spectrometry of tRNA via Ion Trap Collision- Induced Dissociation’. [1] Professor McLuckey donated the $2,000 prize towards student travel support.
Instrumentation
In view of the fact that 160+ Corporate members attended, unfortunately the overview of new instrumentation has to be restricted to the larger companies. They have been divided into companies who are primarily known for their mass spec technologies and those who have relatively long standing stand alone chromatographic instrumentation technology in the international market place.
AB SCIEX followed the theme of tandem MS by unveiling their new 5600 System Triple TOF, claimed by the company ‘to offer performance levels not available with other manufacturers instruments due to new-generation technology the company has developed.’ The company claims the levels of interest in the instrument has ‘exceeded their wildest dreams.’ Also launched by AB SCIEX was the SelexION Technology, which delivers unprecedented performance and a new dimension of selectivity in differential ion mobility spectrometery for quantitative and qualitative analysis. This technology is available on the TripleQuad 5500 and QTRAP 5500 series of instruments.
Bruker, the pioneer of ultra high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, announced a major extension of the successful maXis™UHR Qq-TOF technology range. In March 2011, Bruker unveiled the revolutionary maXis 4G system, setting entirely new performance heights with record-breaking 60,000 full- sensitivity resolution (FSR) and 600 parts-per-billion (ppb) mass accuracy at UHPLC speed. The maXis 4G has the unique distinction of being the only simultaneous high-speed, ultrahigh resolution and full sensitivity mass spectrometer available today, with the dynamic range and quantitative capabilities needed for many small molecule and proteomics applications. The maXis 4G also excels in top-down and intact protein analysis.
At ASMS 2011, Bruker complemented the performance achievements of the maXis 4G by making uncompromised UHR-QqTOF performance available in an affordable, convenient format. The new maXis impact being introduced is a robust, benchtop instrument with outstanding performance to bring the benefits of the maXis technology within reach of all research, quality control, contract and industrial laboratories.
Leco Instruments featured included the Pegasus® 4D GCxGC-MS, the TruTOF® HT
GCMS, and the company’s new High Resolution Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometers (HRT). Available in both LC and GC configurations, these HRT systems utilise Leco’s exclusive Folded Flight Path™ (FFP™) technology to provide full-range mass spectra
Spectroscopy Rocky Mountain High – and Getting Higher by the Day Bernie Monaghan – Contributing Editor, Separations Science, International Labmate Ltd. Email:
bernie@intlabmate.com Report on the 59th ASMS Conference, Denver, Colarado, USA, June 5th – 9th
Once again the mighty ASMS Conference flexes its muscles and heads into town, on this occasion Denver, Colorado, even allowing for the fact that it was only a few years ago when the city last hosted the event. For a change this year in the review we invited three, past and current, committee members from the British Mass Spec Society (BMSS), all of whom have visited the event several times before, to give their opinions on what can be a mind (maybe foot as well) numbing week but as ever you get out of it what you put in.
All of the usual stats regarding numbers of attendees, oral and poster numbers, exhibitors (sorry, Corporate members of ASMS) can be found within the reviews but a vey salient point was made by Jackie Mosely whose comment that there was room for improvement in some oral presentations reiterated that quantity does not equal quality when it comes to the presentations.
at speeds of up to 200 spectra per second, and resolutions of up to 100,000 with mass accuracies of less than 1 ppm. The Citius LC-HRT represents a substantive innovation in High Performance Mass Spectrometers for the LCMS market. The system utilises Leco’s FFP technology to provide full-range mass spectra at speeds of over 200 spectra per second, and resolutions of up to 100,000 with high- performance mass accuracy. The system provides the versatility of ESI, APCI, and DESI (desorption electrospray) ionization sources as options to complement its high- performance MS capabilities and unchallenged dynamic range. The Pegasus GC- HRT represents the next generation of High Performance Mass Spectrometers for the GCMS market. The system also utilises Leco’s Folded Flight Path FFP technology to provide full-range mass spectra at speeds of up to 200 spectra per second, and resolutions of up to 50,000 with high-performance mass accuracy.
Agilent Technologies, as ever a major event for Agilent and this year was no exception. Highlights were the new Agilent 6550 iFunnel quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography /mass spectrometry (Q-TOF LC/MS). This instrument is designed to offer low femtogram sensitivity, fast acquisition up to 50 spectra/sec, up to 5 orders of intra-scan dynamic range with robust performance and operation, it is aimed at the metabolomics, food safety screening, early stage drug development and protein study markets.
Also launched was the 7200 Q-TOF GC/MS, the company’s first GC time-of-flight instrument. Designed to deliver improved chromatographic and spectral resolution from increasingly complex samples it is aimed at the environmental, sports doping and natural products research markets.
The company also launched 6420 Triple Quad LC/MS, 6100B Series Single Quad LC/MS and new MassHunter Software in addition to a proprietary sample preparation card for dried-blood spotting bioanalysis.
PerkinElmer announced the launch of its AxION™ Mass Spectrometry platform. The AxION hardware and software platform is specifically designed to deliver rapid and accurate mass identification and quantification to monitor water quality to ensure its safety as well as safer pharmaceutical and food products. The combination of the state of art AxION hardware and software suite, brings highly specific, fast and accurate quantification to quality control and research-based organisations. The AxION platform is intended to help companies deliver better quality products and services to consumers across the environmental, food and pharmaceutical sectors.
Thermo Fisher Scientific focussed its new lines mainly on its proprietary Orbitrap technology with three main product introductions. The Thermo Scientific Velos Pro is an ion trap with ‘unsurpassed speed for MSn molecular structure elucidation and an ideal front end for Orbitrap hybrid instruments.’ The Orbitrap Elite is a new high- field Orbitrap instrument aimed at revolutionising proteomics research by increasing the speed and resoluion of current Orbitrap technology four fold. Thirdly the Q Exactive Orbitrap aka the ‘Quanfirmation instrument’ which offers the ability to quantify and confirm from a single experiment across a growing range of applications including drug metabolism and pesticide analysis.
Waters two main instruments flag shipped the Waters offering this year, the new Xevo TQD tandem quadrapole mass detector and the SYNAP G2-S mass spectrum. The Xevo TDQ features the same universal ion source (Z-SprayTM
) architecture
present on advanced mass spectrometers such as the Xevo TQ-S and the SYNAP G2-S. It is designed for routine analysis to give maximum productivity with minimum effort. The SYNAP G2-S is a new high definition mass spectrometer aimed at maximising sensitivity and selectivity. It incorporates both high-sensitivity Waters StepWave ion transfer optics and Triwave ion mobility technologies along with a suite of new informatics tools to improve quantitative and qualitative high-resolution performance.
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