University of Warwick researchers and spinout laboratory equipment company Verdel Instruments have demonstrated two-dimensional mass spectrometry (2DMS) on a benchtop instrument.
“The field has long recognised the power of 2DMS, but it has simply not been accessible – only the best-funded centres could afford the specialist hardware,” said Verdel CEO Tim Wilson. “Our technology makes 2DMS possible on benchtop instruments, which are widely available. Any lab can now access this powerful technique.”
The paper, published in Analytical Chemistry, provides a demonstration of 2DMS on a quadrupole time-of-flight instrument, using an upgrade kit. Called Q-2DMS, the method can be used to obtain high resolution tandem mass spectrometry data from complex mixtures without the need for chromatographic separation or mass filtering.
This method could support work across areas such as healthcare, drug development, drug control and laboratory safety.
Q-2DMS works by giving each analyte a unique frequency signature based on its mass-to-charge ratio. When these break apart during analysis, the fragments formed retain this signature, allowing a mathematical decoding process to instantly reveal which fragments came from which analytes.
Researchers found that Q-2DMS preserved up to tenfold more usable spectral information when analysing closely related or near isobaric compounds.
“What excites us most is what we don’t yet know,” said Peter O’Connor, professor of chemistry at University of Warwick, and senior author of the paper. “By making this technique accessible, we’re enabling scientists worldwide to ask questions they couldn’t ask before, and to find answers they weren’t necessarily looking for.”
