AB Sciex has expanded its Eksigent line of column chips for the ChipLC-Nanoflex system.
The company introduced five chips at the recent Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) event, expanding the flexibility and application of the system for high-performance proteomics analysis, including biomarker discovery, validation and verification.
The extended offering includes higher-flow micro ChipLC columns for peptide separation at increased throughput levels, as well as new phases for the analysis of intact proteins, phosphopeptides and glycans.
All ChipLC-Nanoflex columns are designed and microfabricated to be robust and highly reproducible, providing good-quality separations that are straightforward to obtain by users at all experience levels.
The first two of the new chips are nano LC columns - C4 for the analysis of intact proteins and graphitised carbon for phosphopeptides and glycans.
At the event, AB Sciex also presented three additional chips, including 200um ID C18-CL micro ChipLC columns in 15cm and 5cm lengths.
These chips are run at 1.0uL/min to 3.5uL/min flow rates, reducing gradient delay times compared with nanoflow HPLC, thus providing higher sample throughput and improved chromatography.
The new micro ChipLC columns are designed to increase speed and throughput for applications such as quantitative biomarker validation.
Trap columns are available for all phases, including the original C18 and C8 columns for peptide analysis.
Eksigent customer Reid Townsend, professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine and director of the university's NIH-NCI proteome characterisation centre, has tested the new 200um chips in his laboratory.
He said that loading five times more sample on the new chip with a yeast digest yielded five times more protein identifications resulting from three times the number of distinct peptide identifications, compared with a standard 75um ID chip.
Nanoflow liquid chromatography, coupled with nanoelectrospray MS, is the method of choice for protein and peptide analysis.
The Eksigent ChipLC-Nanoflex system, launched in 2009, delivers high reproducibility at nanoflow and microflow rates.
The system is a docking station for up to three column chips.
Eksigent's proprietary Eksport microconnector system is designed to ensure reliable and consistent connections to facilitate column changes.
Chips can be interchanged in seconds, even by inexperienced users, with minimal dead volume to compromise resolution.
This enables users to switch between workflows.
The proprietary microfabrication process used for both the trap chips and analytical column chips delivers good column-to-column reproducibility.
The ChipLC-Nanoflex can be added to any of Eksigent's NanoLC systems and interfaced to AB Sciex's TripleTOF 5600 for biomarker discovery and AB Sciex's Qtrap 5500 for verification and validation, as well as other mass spectrometers.
