Kean Woodmansey

Accelerating Echo® MS system optimization with LeadScape®

Jun 17, 2026 | Blogs, Echo® MS+ system, Pharma, SCIEX OS software | 0 comments

Read time: 2 minutes

In this video, Daniel Collins, PhD, from Monash University shares how they are using LeadScape Optimize on the SCIEX OS platform at the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation, in Melbourne, Australia.

For more than 20 years, the CDCO has supported academic, commercial, and not‑for‑profit drug discovery programs with deep expertise in pharmaceutical lead optimization. Within the bioanalytical group, their role is to enable rapid and reliable decision‑making through quantitative analysis of candidate drugs in biological matrices.

As they have adopted acoustic ejection mass spectrometry using the Echo® MS system, the speed of sample analysis has increased dramatically. This shift has highlighted a new challenge, traditional manual MRM optimization can quickly become the bottleneck.

Daniel walks through how LeadScape Optimize helps address this issue by automating compound optimization and MRM generation directly within SCIEX OS software. This workflow reduces hands‑on analyst time, improves consistency, and enables us to keep pace with the throughput potential of Echo® MS system.

Practical examples from our Caco‑2 permeability assay, compare automated and guided optimization approaches, and highlight why this level of automation is becoming essential for modern lead optimization workflows.

Performance and benefits

Using the default settings, LeadScape Optimize performs a rapid positive and negative ion sweep before refining the optimal transitions. This process takes approximately four and a half minutes per compound, representing a modest time saving compared with guided MRM.

Where LeadScape truly excels, however, is in automation. The optimization runs without analyst intervention, freeing scientists to perform other tasks such as data review, method development on other instruments, or running parallel assays.

In direct comparisons, the MRMs generated by LeadScape were comparable to those derived from manual or guided optimization within SCIEX OS software. In our hands, the transitions were reliable, accurate, and well suited to quantitative Echo® MS system analyses.

Daniel explain how the CDCO, currently use LeadScape Optimize as a standalone MRM optimization tool for Echo® MS system‑based workflows, and it has already delivered significant benefits. As they move towards adopting the Analyse functionality more broadly, we expect these benefits to increase further.

Watch the full video here

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Kean Woodmansey

Senior Product Manager, Echo® MS+ system Kean Woodmansey is the Senior Product Manager for the Echo® MS system at SCIEX. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic success of the Echo MS+ portfolio. Kean spent the first part of his career working in contract research organizations, doing bioanalysis, before moving into pharma market development and product management.

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