Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening - Volume 12, Issue 2, 2009

Although rooted in physics, today mass spectrometry (MS) has become an irreplaceable tool for scientists to study the mechanisms of elemental and molecular processes occurring in nature. Due to novel MS configurations and ionisation methods, the last two decades have witnessed rapid and extensive utilisation of mass spectrometry for qualitative and quantitative purposes. Among several research fields, combinatorial c Read More

The operating principles and some applications of atmospheric pressure desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and surface activated chemical ionization (SACI) methods are described in detail. The former technique allows one to obtain information on the chemical composition (in terms of organic compounds) present on a surface of interest. The latter, SACI, provides chemical information as a result of the interaction of a v Read More

MALDI in combination with high-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID) performed by tandem time-offlight mass spectrometry (TOF/RTOF) is a relatively new technology for the structural analysis of various classes of biomolecules as e.g., peptides, carbohydrates, glycoconjugate drugs and lipids. Fragmentation mechanisms for these classes of compounds as well as corresponding fragment ion nomenclatures based mainly o Read More

Mass Spectrometry (MS) has a number of features namely sensitivity, high dynamic range, high resolution, and versatility which make it a very powerful analytical tool for a wide spectrum of applications spanning all the life science fields. Among all the MS techniques, MALDI Imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI MSI) is currently one of the most exciting both for its rapid technological improvements, and for its great potential Read More

Significant effort has been extended in recent years toward the development and application of ‘targeted’ approaches for the identification, characterization and quantitative analysis of post-translational or process-induced protein modifications, based on the multistage tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS and MS3) fragmentation reactions of their proteolytically derived peptide ions. Although these approaches have b Read More

Hyphenation with liquid chromatography has become indispensable in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Sample complexity together with the large variations in dynamic range can be only tackled using techniques that isolate and/or concentrate individual components prior to mass spectrometric analysis. In this review the most recent developments in micro/nanoliquid chromatography interfaced with MALDI and ele Read More

Mass spectrometry has become the pre-eminent analytical method for the study of proteins and proteomes in post-genome science. The high volumes of complex spectra and data generated from such experiments represent new challenges for the field of bioinformatics. The past decade has seen an explosion of informatics tools targeted towards the processing, analysis, storage, and integration of mass spectrometry bas Read More

The key strengths of electrospray over any other ionisation techniques are its soft nature and its ability to produce multiply charged ions. This combination is ideal for the study of non-covalent interactions. In this review article, we cover the basics of studying non-covalent interactions by mass spectrometry - illustrated with examples from our own and other labs - and discuss the current mass spectrometry based method Read More

In this mini review, the importance of experimental steroidomics in the study of neurodegenerative disease and aging is discussed. Attention is focused on just one class of lipid which is based on the cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene ring system. Experimental methods for steroidomic analysis are reviewed, and the potential to use these methods to diagnose disease and to gain a better understanding of neurodegener Read More

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