Shimadzu at ASMS 2023

Resource-efficient MALDI MSI

Fast, cost-efficient and reproducible workflows for MALDI MSI experiments is one of the most important challenges for the technology to increase acceptance throughout the market. We introduce you to our workflow for high-spatial MALDI imaging under inert conditions. Matrix preparation techniques are carefully optimized and evaluated for the iMLayer AERO (application by spraying) using the MALDI 8030 benchtop instrumentation. The linear MALDI instrument is operated under fixed settings allowing for cost and time efficient survey experiments by its speed of analysis. Matrix choice and deposition parameters can quickly assessed. The method with the best performance is then used to prepare samples for the better performing MALDI instrument, the MALDI 7090, which provides higher spatial and mass resolution.

The workflow proves to be a very efficient tool for developing a matrix spraying method tailored to a specific sample in a very short time.

Martina Marchetti-Deschmann¹
TU Wien, Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Getreidemarkt 9/164, Vienna, Austria; martina.marchetti-deschmann@tuwien.ac.at

Setting up a new Mass Spectrometry Core Facility - Establishing workflows for a diverse userbase

The Chemical and Biophysical Instrumentation Center (CBIC) in the Yale Chemistry Department hosts over 30 instruments with a broad range of analytical applications. The mass spectrometry subsection was created in 2019/2020 and provides now a variety of MS based measurements for research groups in Chemistry, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Medicine, Archeology and beyond. The availability of GC-FID/MS, quantitative and qualitative LCMS, and MALDI MS under one roof allows to provide researchers with the technique most suitable to their analytical needs. In this seminar, Dr. Fabian Menges will present challenges and opportunities in this work and will report on some recent projects.

Dr. Fabian Menges

What’s in your toolbox? Add a SPARQ to Your Research!

“What’s in your toolbox?” is an analogy that I frequently use to describe the decision making process of method development and instrumental analysis. This analogy references not only the physical tools that are available, but also knowledge and personnel. Some of the physical tools that one might have available include separation science, spectroscopy, physical measurements tools, and of course mass spectrometry. Many sectors of academia and non-Ph.D. granting institutions often struggle to afford the instrumentation required for successful and innovative analysis. Through more than $2.5M in grant funding over the last 5 years, Dr. Tucker and his collaborators have equipped the lab with HPLC-DAD/RID, an EDX, a UV/Vis/NIR, two LCMS, and two GCMS instruments. One of the largest struggles for smaller institutions though is learning how to expertly use a variety of instruments, efficiently manage usage requests, and sufficiently train students to become independent operators of the equipment. During this seminar, we will discuss the most important tool Shimadzu provides that enables research at a higher level which frequently goes unnoticed and unrecognized in terms of its level of importance – the collaboration.

Kevin Tucker, Ph.D. and Kendra Selby

Liquid Chromatography, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography and Vacuum Differential Mobility Spectrometry - Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Complex Samples

Nowadays sensitive identification and selective quantification of low molecular weight compounds relies on the combination of separation sciences and mass spectrometric detection. While liquid chromatography (LC) with electrospray ionization remains the most used separation technique. supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC-MS) offers an attractive alternative to (LC-MS) as the chromatographic conditions can be decoupled from the ionization conditions and the benefits will be discussed.

Separation of isomeric or isobaric analytes remains a challenge and ion mobility as gained of interest to separate isomers, to improve selectivity and to reduce analysis time. The potential of vacuum Differential Mobility Spectrometry – Mass Spectrometry (vDMS-MS) for reducing LC analysis time while maintaining good selectivity is presented for the analysis of 14 diastereomeric pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), in tea samples. The performance of the LC-vDMS-SIM/MS approach will be discussed and compared to a conventional LC-SRM/MS method and two SFC-SRM/MS methods.

Maria Fernanda Cifuentes Girard¹, Patrick Knight², and Gérard Hopfgartner¹
1. Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry, Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
2. Shimadzu Research Laboratory, Wharfside, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester M17 1GP, United Kingdom.