Mass Spectrometers
Our EXPERT: Kimberly Moser Instructional Laboratory Manager University of Oklahoma
When to upgrade your mass spectrometer (MS) varies from user to user but there are a few main indicators that are common to many situations, the experts say.
Advion, Inc., a leading life sciences Systems and Consumables developer, today announced during the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Meeting that it has signed a value added reseller (VAR) agreement with Agilent Technologies to market the full line of Agilent’s chromatography systems to be sold in conjunction with Advion’s expression compact mass spectrometer (CMS).
One trend evident in science generally, and for laboratories in particular, is the desire to do things faster, more reliably and economically, at a higher level of hardware and method robustness, and all with a less-specialized workforce. This is especially true of mass spectrometry, where users no longer need a Ph.D. to operate MS systems.
According to one expert, the top service-related issue today is an unintended consequence of instrument sensitivity and stability
Sample preparation reduces sample complexity and renders samples into a format amenable to downstream analysis. Sample prep is most necessary for complex, multicomponent samples containing substances that interfere either with the MS (e.g., through ion suppression) or, in GC/LC-MS, the chromatography.
Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have become leading MS customers. Because they work with human and test animal biological fluids and low-dose drugs, sample preparation takes center stage. Many of these workflows are automated for both sample and standards preparation.
