As interest in N-glycan analysis grows within the biopharma industry, innovation continues allowing analyses to be done in less time with fewer and less tedious, sample preparation steps. One of these recent innovations was the release of the SCIEX Fast Glycan...
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What is the difference between a rapid and a thorough search in ProteinPilot software?
When setting up your search in ProteinPilot software, you select either a Rapid Search or a Thorough Search in the Search Effort section. This setting determines which parts of the algorithm will be invoked and effectively how deep into your sample you will search to...
Breaking down the SCIEX Triple Quad™ 7500 LC-MS/MS System – QTRAP® Ready
Sensitivity and robustness carry different meanings in the world of mass spectrometry. Generally, sensitivity refers to an instrument’s ability to achieve lower limits of detection (LOD). Robustness, on the other hand, refers to an instrument’s ability to consistently...
The honey sting
As a consumer it’s hard for me not to feel inundated with claims that our food is “all-natural” or “chemical-free” or that we should buy certain “superfoods” for their health benefits. We read labels and trust that the product we are buying is what we are truly...
Innovation that’s blasting through limitations in explosive detection
Mass spectrometry’s important role in identifying explosives The need for rapid explosive detection is now an unfortunate reality. The remit is multifaceted. The first is for preventative purposes, to protect us from any threat to life. The second is in the...
A new generation of therapeutic modalities
There are over 7,000 genetic diseases that could potentially be cured using gene therapy. Rare metabolic diseases, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease and cancers are some of the top disease classes that can be addressed with gene therapies. With over 1,000...
Enhancing Biologics with CESI-MS Characterization
Comprehensive characterization of a biologic requires analysis at both the intact and digest levels, but these analyses can be complex and cumbersome. For example, with conventional liquid chromatography separations, researchers are often left with limited information...
Full, partial and empty capsid ratios for AAV analysis: What’s the big deal?
For many of you working to develop gene therapy drugs, you know that the time to market the drug is critical. Because gene therapeutics cure diseases by targeting specific genes, it is a constant race to see who develops the drug first. Unlike other classes of drugs where multiple medications can be used to treat a disease, whoever is first to develop a gene therapy drug wins.
Accurate mass LC-MS/MS for PFAS analysis without needing a blockbuster budget
If you’ve been following our recent blogs, you’ve probably seen quite a bit on how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are shaking up both the food and environmental industry. Even if you’ve not been following our blogs, you’ve probably seen a lot of media...
A rising star in food allergen research: proteomics of shellfish allergen
It’s important to know what you’re eating, especially if you suffer from a food allergy.
About 220 million people worldwide live with a food allergy.1 These numbers, along with the complexity and severity of conditions, continue to rise. In America, there are about 32 million food allergy sufferers—5.6 million of those are children under the age of 18.2.2 That’s 1 out of every 13 children, or about 2 in every classroom. From a financial perspective, the cost of food allergy childcare for US families is up to $25 billion
Routine cannabis screening is here. Will your lab reap the benefits?
Fast, accurate, and robust solution for routine commercial cannabis testing
As the world debates cannabis legalization for therapeutic applications and recreational use, the trends are shifting. Medicinal use of cannabis is legal in an increasing number of countries worldwide, including 33 states and the District of Columbia in the United States. Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize the sale, cultivation, and distribution of cannabis in 2013. In the United States, Washington and Colorado were the first to fully legalize cannabis in 2012. By the end of 2019, 10 states have legalized recreational use for adults over the age of 21, with 64% of Americans favoring the move
A Sting in the Tale for Neonicotinoids
Did you know one out of every three mouthfuls of your meal is a product of honeybee pollination—almonds and other tree nuts, berries, fruits, vegetables? To put numbers behind it, honeybee pollination amounts to about $15 billion of U.S....
The detection of acid herbicides and urons by large volume injection
Pre-treatment versus direct injection – that is the question posed in the application note, “The Detection of Acidic Herbicides and Phenyl Ureas by LC-MS/MS with Large Volume Injection and Automated Column Switching.” It’s just one of the dozens of articles you will find within the Environmental Compendium (pages 1 to 4, pesticides) now available for download.
See What More You Can do With 360 Degree Biologics Characterization
Ever wish you had your own team of mass spectrometry experts at your side when working through biologics development and characterization challenges? With SCIEX 360° Innovations complex biologics characterization is streamlined with a full suite of mass spectrometry (MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems, software, and services from SCIEX experts.
You’ve Seen It… Now Try It! BioPharmaView Software 2.0
At ASMS this year, the newest version of BioPharmaView Software was released. This software simplifies the processing of biotherapeutic data for characterization and comparability which can dramatically improve your productivity. BioPharmaView 2.0 Software accelerates characterization and comparability studies and simplifies reporting, so you can make better decisions, faster.
Quantitation of Antibiotics and Insecticides in Poultry Feed using LC-MS/MS
Quantitating antibiotics and insecticides in poultry is serious business. Overuse can lead to antibiotic resistance while insecticide residuals can cause harmful side effects in humans. In the United States, for example, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), has offered up a plan to limit common antibiotics in feed, which are used to encourage growth. However, this is a voluntary plan, and as the following application note, “Quantitation of Antibiotics and Insecticides in Poultry Feed using LC-MS/MS,” points out, antibiotics have been shown to accumulate in poultry feathers, which are in turn used for nutritional elements in the feed.
Screening Novel Psychoactive Substances with Confidence
How do you know what you can’t see? This is the challenge many a lab faces as they relentlessly test for novel psychoactive substances (NPS) as unknown samples with an ever-changing ingredient list make discovery difficult work at best. There are many reasons for the complexities of which you can discover in this application note, “Accurate Mass Screening Workflows for the Analysis of Novel Psychoactive Substances.” However, the biggest of which is that non-targeted findings can turn up thousands of molecular features in a single sample. Sifting through the peaks is laborious, and many are normal besides.
Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Drinking Water – EPA Method 537
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), requires a new list of no more than 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public drinking water systems. Known as the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), a new list is published every five years. The last rule, UCMR3, was published May 2, 2012, and is the focus of the following application note, “Analysis of Perfluoroalkyl (PFFA) Acids Specified under the UCMR3 Using the QTRAP® 6500 LC-MS/MS system,” which can be found in the Food and Environmental Compendium.
SCIEX helps set food standards in China
One of the biggest concerns of Chinese citizens is food safety1. Even though China ranks second in global economies2, crowding, industrial pollution, labor and certain agriculture practices have contributed to this. In October 2015, however, we began to see a turnaround as the Chinese government revised its 2009 Food Safety Law in an attempt to strengthen its food supply oversight and quality.
Discover the new and accurate SCIEX way to enhance your routine food allergen testing
Food allergy is an immune-mediated, adverse reaction to an antigenic protein. Even limited exposure to an antigen can provoke a significant reaction in sensitive individuals, causing rashes, itching and swelling in the mouth, nausea, vomiting, and asthma. Additionally, food allergies are the leading cause of anaphylaxis, an acute, potentially deadly allergic reaction. The prevalence and severity of food allergies are rising, with approximately 150 million people suffering from food allergies worldwide.1, 2 Presently, there is no cure for food allergies, and sufferers must rely on the correct labeling of foods to avoid consuming allergens. Hence, the development of sensitive and accurate analytical methods to screen for the presence of allergens in food products is necessary for the prevention of potentially life-threatening health problems for allergy sufferers.
Three Infographics to Show You How to Overcome Challenges in Transitioning to Biologics Bioanalysis
The move to large molecules in Pharma is accelerating, offering unprecedented opportunities to improve human health and expand into new markets. But for those with extensive experience with small molecule bioanalysis, the shift to biologics can be challenging, from Sample Prep to Instrumentation and Software, to Methods and Training:
Rapid Characterization of Biologics using CESI-MS
Today, 30 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), have been approved for the treatment of certain cancers, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Even more are in development, and perhaps you and your team of scientists are working on one now. Keeping pace with fast development timelines while performing comprehensive characterization of biologic candidates can be challenging. However, more and more, scientists are tackling these challenges with new techniques to speed and simplify their characterization workflows. Read more in the application note, “Rapid Characterization of Biologics using a CESI 8000 – SCIEX TripleTOF® System,” found in the Biologics Analytical Characterization Compendium, which highlights how CESI separation coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry can provide a comprehensive characterization of biotherapeutics.
The Not So Hidden Truth about Climate Change How It’s Poisoning Your Food
Did you know climate change could be poisoning your food? According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) report on Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern, rising temperatures are making crops more toxic.
Guardians of Antibiotics
This second is a blog series on the global war: Rise of Superbugs! Part 1 took a critical look at the antibiotic threat we face in today’s battlefield. The waning effectiveness of antibiotics as we head into what may seem like a post-antibiotic era has impelled new reformation to at the very least control antibiotic usage to ensure food safety.
Protein Quantitation Workflows using the TripleTOF 6600: A Case Study for Rituximab
Although the triple-stage quadrupole (QQQ) mass spectrometer remains the pillar for quantitative LC-MS/MS bioanalytical assays, due in part to the platforms’ high duty cycle when operated in multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, the applicability of high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) has become of increasing importance for protein quantitation given the complexity of proteolytically digested samples in the surrogate peptide approach. While the QQQ demonstrates high sensitivity and specificity, the relatively low-resolution measurement of m/z may fail to differentiate analyte response from nominally isobaric background interference. In contrast, HRMS with accurate mass assignment of product ion allows interference to be resolved through judicious selection of a post-acquisition mass extraction window whose tolerance is largely dictated by the effective resolution and stability of mass calibration.
Rise of the Super Bugs
The term “antibiotic-free” is becoming more and more popular in food advertising these days. Take Subway for example; in March the company elevated their antibiotic-free policy and introduced a new antibiotic-free rotisserie-style chicken sub, and they plan to, “Nix antibiotics in all its meat by 2025.”
Glyphosate, a Polar Pest Put to Test
No other pesticide has courted more media attention and controversy in recent months than glyphosate, with governments and national agencies debating its use and health effects.
Using Mass Spec to Detect Trace Explosives
The importance of protecting a country’s border is a very topical issue. The war on drugs and terror is a 24/7 task 366 days a year (2016 is a leap year). The government agencies in charge must be vigilant and maintain instrumentation to prevent terrorism, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities. Mass Spectrometry is rapidly becoming the instrument of choice for border agencies throughout the world when it comes to explosive trace detection and forensic drug compounds.
Routine Food Testing Using Mass Spectrometry
These days, it is not uncommon to hear about the overzealous application of pesticides to crops or the injection of antibiotics into animals. From grocery stores to restaurants, our food is at risk. How then, can consumers be assured that chemical contaminants like these , not to mention the risk of mycotoxin compounds are not making their way to your dinner table?
Quantify and Identify Pesticides in Complex Food Samples Using the QTRAP 6500 LC-MS/MS System
Recent regulations on food analysis require screening for pesticides using confirmatory techniques, such as GC-MS and LC-MS/MS. More than 1000 pesticides are used worldwide and, along with their metabolites and degradation products, are present in food. There is a demand for powerful and rapid analytical methods that can identify pesticides with high confidence in a broad range of food matrices and quantify at low concentrations with good accuracy and reproducibility. Challenges for pesticide residue laboratories at the moment are the request to test for more compounds, in a wider range of samples, all without sacrificing data quality.
Fast, Efficient, Disulfide Bond Mapping Using BioPharmaView™ Software
Fast LC-MS acquisition and automated data processing will help you speed up peptide mapping of your biotherapeutic, including critical disulfide bond and post-translational modification characterization. SCIEX helps you untangle the complexity of disulfide bonds, speeding up your characterization process.