MS Technology Develops into an Accessible Platform

Mass spectrometry (MS), which was until recently a complicated technology available exclusively to highly trained experts, is today a workhorse analytic technique for a wide variety of scientific applications including food and environmental contamination testing, forensic analysis, drug discovery and development, and basic research.

The development of this MS technology into an accessible platform for scientists across disciplines was the focus for Applied Biosystems (Warrington, UK) and its joint venture partner, MDS Analytical Technologies (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) during the 56th annual American Society of Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference in Denver, May 31-June 5, 2008.

Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies' scientists presented more than 70 presentations highlighting recent and ongoing investigations enabled by their technology platforms at the meeting. The presentations illustrated how newly released software applications and chemical reagents deliver complete, integrated workflows for applications ranging from the discovery, validation, and verification of biomarkers to drug metabolism studies, and the detection and measurement of environmental contaminants.

At the meeting Ethan Badman, Ph.D., principal scientist at Hoffman-La Roche (Nutley, NJ, USA) described a new, automated method using MS that allows a one-touch approach to determining matrix factors. Calculation of matrix factors provides a clear understanding of the matrix effects in bioanalytical assays. "The procedure developed by Applied Biosystems essentially lets us open a template, click, and get the matrix factors we need,” said Dr. Badman. "It is much easier because it is all automated, compared to calculating matrix factors manually. The fact that the algorithm is built-in reduces calculation errors.”

Christie Hunter, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist at Applied Biosystems, reviewed how the joint venture's integration of hardware, software, and reagents could be used to reproducibly quantitate hundreds of proteins for targeted proteomics applications, including biomarker studies. This extends the targeted proteomics approach, which is being called the fourth generation of proteomics.

Applied Biosystems hosted a number of workshops, including one that concentrated on the value of integrated services for validation and remote system monitoring for regulated laboratories. This workshop provided an overview of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's trends for laboratory compliance, and highlighted the availability of an expanded range of Smart Monitoring and Compliance services from Applied Biosystems Global Services.

Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies' expanded suite of powerful mass spectrometry software and solutions to increase scientific productivity were also on display during the meeting.


Related Links:
Applied Biosystems
MDS Analytical Technologies
Hoffman-La Roche