HIGH MASS RESOLUTION FOR MALDI TOF MASS SPECTROMETRY

利用基质辅助激光等离子形成方法 解吸/电离（MALDI）与质谱（MS）串联， 彻底改变了生物学意义上的 分子。 MS现在已经成为一种不可或缺的技术， 分析大分子，如脂质、肽、蛋白质和 核酸 ToF质量分析仪由于其 简单性、准平行检测和理论上无限的质量 范围 使用ToF的一个历史缺点是质量峰值差 分辨力 分辨质量峰的能力对于 使用精确质量测量成功分配峰组成 和结构。 我们认为改善MALDI质量的最佳方法 解决方案是将电离和提取从 加速度和质量分析，通过添加间隙碰撞 冷却阶段。 拟议的仪器设计应显著改善 MALDI质谱的分辨率。 为了进一步提高分辨率， 计时精度和质量测量精度，我们将使用IOnwerks 多通道时间数字转换器（TDC）。 的组合 多像素检测器和多通道TDC将增加动态 TDC数据记录仪的范围，以达到它应该与 瞬态数字转换器，但提供上级定时分辨率。 建议的商业应用 MALDI质谱法在各个方面得到了广泛而有效的应用 生物分子的特征。 如果第一阶段取得成功，我们将 提供质量分辨率和质量精度上级的仪器 到目前可用的仪器。 我们设想， 将立即销售给生物技术和制药公司， 应用范围广泛的行业，如研究规模的蛋白质 大规模蛋白质测定到小规模临床诊断。

The use of ion formation methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) in tandem with mass spectrometry (MS) has revolutionized the characterization of biologically significant molecules. MS has now become an indispensable technique for the analysis of large molecules such as lipids, peptides, proteins and nucleic acids. The ToF mass analyzer is widely used because of its simplicity, quasi-parallel detection and theoretically unlimited mass range. One historical drawback to the use of ToF is poor mass peak resolving power. The ability to resolve mass peaks is critical to the success of using accurate mass measurement to assign peak composition and structure. We feel the best approach to improving MALDI mass resolution is to decouple the ionization and extraction from acceleration and mass analysis by adding an interstitial collisional cooling stage. The proposed instrument design should markedly improve the resolution of MALDI mass spectra. To further improve resolution and timing accuracy and mass measurement accuracy, we will use the IOnwerks multi-channel time-to-digital converter (TDC). The combination of multi-pixel detector and multi-channel TDC will increase the dynamic range of the TDC data recorder to the point that it should compete with transient digitizers, but provide superior timing resolution. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION MALDI mass spectrometry is widely and effectively used in all aspects of biomolecule characterization. Should Phase I be successful, we will provide an instrument with mass resolution and mass accuracy superior to currently available instrumentation. We envision that the instrument will be immediately marketable to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with applications as wide ranging as research scale protein scale protein assay to small scale clinical diagnosis.