Three new electrospray ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry products, a new ion trap product, and four new proteomics software solutions launched at ASMS meeting in Texas
Agilent Technologies has announced three new electrospray ionisation (ESI) time-of-flight (Tof) mass spectrometry (MS) products, a new ion trap product and four new proteomics software solutions at the ASMS conference on mass spectrometry last week in San Antonio, USA.
This is part of the company's concerted effort to deliver a new level of value to proteomics researchers, according to Taia Ergueta, general manager of Proteomics and LC/MS, Agilent's life sciences and chemical analysis group.
"The industry is ready for the next generation of proteomics tools, in which complex samples are more easily separated, MS analysis is more accessible to a wider range of users, and the results are more useful," said Ergueta.
"These new products will empower biologists and reverse the complexity of current MS technology".
Agilent demonstrated the following new and enhanced products at the conference:.
Three new Esi-Tof MS products.
New XCT ultra ion trap.
New and enhanced proteomics software.
Three new Esi-Tof MS products.
New hardware, scheduled to ship in the third calendar quarter of this year, will complete a scan cycle between positive and negative ion acquisition in less than one second.
It will acquire up to 40 scans per second, accommodating high-throughput screening applications.
The Agilent Multimode Source will be available in Q4 of this year (2005), with Agilent's Esi-Tof MS.
Agilent claims that its multimode source is the only technology capable of operating electrospray ionisation and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI) - the two most widely used ionisation modes - simultaneously.
This eliminates the need to exchange sources and rerun samples, significantly increasing speed, efficiency and productivity in drug discovery and similar types of research.
Agilent's breakthrough, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chip/mass spectrometry will also be available for the Esi-Tof in Q4 of this year.
This microfluidics-based LC/MS technology is expected to significantly increase the speed, ease and productivity of proteomics research on Esi-Tof MS.
The unique HPLC-chip seamlessly integrates the sample enrichment and separation capability of a nanoflow LC system with the intricate connections and spray tips used in ESI mass spectrometry.
This eliminates half of the fittings and connections typically required in an LC/MS system, dramatically reducing the possibility of leaks and dead volumes while streamlining workflow, says the company.
Agilent's new high-performance ion trap mass spectrometer, the Agilent 1100 series LC/MSD Trap XCT Ultra, enables life science researchers to identify 60-80 percent more peptides than preceding models in proteomics applications such as biomarker discovery, it says.
It offers significantly shorter scan cycle times, enabling collection of mass spectra up to three times faster than its predecessor.
The performance and convenience of the HPLC-chip/MS is also available with the XCT Ultra Ion Trap.
The company's new and enhanced proteomics software, BioConfirm, can automatically deconvolute intact protein and peptide mass spectral data.
This enables applications of intact protein confirmation, detailed peptide mass mapping (theoretical digest generation, list of observed peptides, etc) and synthetic peptide confirmation.
Mass Profiler software processes Agilent Tof MS data into meaningful lists of detected features, or molecules present using a unique mass hunter algorithm.
It then compares data sets for the discovery of differentially expressed features.
It can also pass feature lists into Agilent's GeneSpring expression analysis platform and transfer information to the XCT Ultra Ion Trap for MS/MS experiments.
Spectrum Mill is an updated integrated suite of software tools designed to facilitate modern, high-throughput proteomics experiments using mass spectrometry.
It quickly provides quality filtering of the raw data, and iterative database searching with information content-based scoring for confident protein identification and relative quantification.
GlycomIQ is an integrated solution for mass spectrometric analysis of glycoproteins.
It is being co-marketed by Agilent and Proteome Systems, and includes consumables, LC/MS hardware, software and a database of glycan spectra for the identification of glycoproteins separated by various techniques.
