Happy New Year #TeamMassSpec! We hope you all had some rest during the holidays and you’re feeling ready to tackle 2025 with newfound vigor and enthusiasm. There ain’t no rest for the wicked after all; and, last I checked, innovations within the field of mass spectrometry don’t grow on trees.
To kick off the year, I first wanted to highlight an article that reviews the most noteworthy mass-spec related stories covered in the newsletter over the past 12 months. It’s clear that 2024 was a standout for the mass spectrometry-based omics community. Notable moments included the identification of more than 1,000 previously undetected proteins in common metabolite samples by scientists at Van Andel Research Institute and the introduction of a computational framework for 3D imaging and profiling of single cells by Jonathan Sweedler.
To find out what other stories caught our eye as the year went on, be sure to read the full article here.
Essential Reading
The XCMS-METLIN Story
Gary Siuzdak revealed to us the story of how he and the rest of his team at The Scripps Research Institute developed XCMS-METLIN: a platform designed for tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)-based metabolomic and lipidomic analyses, which won The Analytical Scientist’s Innovation Awards in 2023.
XCMS-METLIN combines XCMS, a software package designed to process data from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with METLIN, a comprehensive metabolite database 10 times greater than the next largest.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout the development of XCMS-METLIN, it’s that no innovation happens in isolation. I’ve simply learned to listen and value the ideas of others – especially from brilliant scientists like Colin, Aries, and Winnie. XCMS-METLIN is the culmination of a tremendous team effort.”
Read the full story here!
Chromatography Free: It’s Closer Than You Think
In an era of ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry, why is it that so many rely on chromatography? Despite being resource and time-inefficient, finding another method to separate and identify difficult compounds may not be as simple as it sounds, according to Oliver J. Schmitz.
He discusses the current landscape regarding chromatography alternatives, addressing current issues faced by the field as well as some of the most promising leads currently being developed, such as quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (qTOF-MS) combined with ion mobility spectrometry:
“Although qTOF has a lower resolution than FT-ICR-MS, coupling with IMS provides an additional dimension of separation by determining the collision cross section (CCS). This two-dimensional separation effectively compensates for the lower mass resolution of qTOF and significantly increases identification accuracy.”
Find out more!
Worth Your Time
Researchers use ultra-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Triple-TOF/MS) to determine the chemical composition and pharmacokinetics of Shenqi Fuzheng (SQ) – a popular Chinese medicine formula. Link
A new multi-reflecting instrument for time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) has a resolving power of approximately 1 million (R ≈ 1,000,000) across a wide mass range. Link
Scientists develop FREDA – an interactive web application that enables analysis of data generated from Fourier-transform mass spectrometry (FT-MS) without the need for prior expertise in statistical programming. Link
A workflow for multiplexed charge detection mass spectrometry (CD-MS) on an Orbitrap analyzer enables individual ion mass spectrometry (I²MS). Link
Using liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS/MS), researchers investigate the metabolite profile of Clerordendrum infortunatum; demonstrating its therapeutic potential in treating Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Link
(Mass) Spectacular and Strange
A Song of Ice and Fire
In a new study from the University of Oregon, researchers measured the isotopic composition of methane trapped in ice cores from the Western Antarctic, highlighting wildfires as a significant feature of past rapid climate shifts, known as Dansgaard–Oeschger and Heinrich events.
Isotopic analysis conducted with mass spectrometry offered a clear link between wildfire activity and methane spikes, providing evidence that wildfires were a prominent feature of these periods. Lead author Ben Riddell-Young said “[The] research shows that we may not be properly considering how wildfire activity might change as the climate warms and rainfall patterns shift," in a recent press release.
Our full story on the findings can be found here.
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