The development of analytical methods for the detection and quantitation of drugs and metabolites in a range of biological matrices is a challenging process. Forensic toxicology labs need a reproducible and reliable methodology to ensure the robustness of the data and the quality of the results. They also need robust and sensitive instrumentation that can detect drugs at trace levels with high specificity, especially when it comes to novel psychoactive substances (NPS), which can be difficult to monitor and control.
Tags
Unlock the benefits of nominal mass spectrometry for NPS analysis
The development of analytical methods for the detection and quantitation of drugs and metabolites in a range of biological matrices is a challenging process. Forensic toxicology labs need a reproducible and reliable methodology to ensure the robustness of the data and the quality of the results. They also need robust and sensitive instrumentation that can detect drugs at trace levels with high specificity, especially when it comes to novel psychoactive substances (NPS), which can be difficult to monitor and control.
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 top 5 questions to ask when investing in accurate mass technology for forensic toxicology workflows
Are you considering the purchase of a high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) instrument for your forensic toxicology lab? To help ensure you invest in a solution that ideally meets your needs, ask yourself the following key questions. 1. How do I ensure my results...
Calling SCIEX Software Users: Windows 10 Support for all SCIEX Software
As a researcher in a busy lab, the software driving your work is critical to your success, and the timely transition of SCIEX applications to Windows 10 is no exception. In early 2020 Microsoft will be ending Windows 7 support, and we want you to know we are taking...
Detect the Signal, Not the Noise
Improving the specificity and selectivity of your assay Your LC-MS assay is only as good as its power to discern your target compound from everything else. Standards dissolved in clean solvents can make beautiful assays, but analytes in real-world samples can behave...
Software Licensing Comparison: Subscription or Perpetual?
Are you confused by software licensing? Do you want to know the difference between a subscription and a perpetual license? In this blog, we compare both options and explain the value of each choice for your laboratory. Years ago, the perpetual license model was the...
Make the Leap from GC to LC-MS/MS
Choosing the best technique for your analysis can be tough. Should you go with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)? That’s the key question. That’s why we’re here to help. The Limitations of...
Sensitivity, It’s at the Very Heart of Who We Are
Walk into any modern pharmaceutical company these days, and you’ll likely find at least one if not many, SCIEX LC-MS/MS instruments. Assays for the detection and quantitation of small molecule drugs, metabolites, biotherapeutics, biomarkers, and many other analytes...
Uncovering the Links Between Childhood Growth, Body Size, and a Woman’s Risk of Breast Cancer
Welcome to the second in a series of posts marking International Women’s Day, and our ongoing support of World Cancer Research Fund. This installment is a review by Dr. Jennifer Baker, of her work, that, with the help of a WCRF grant, is studying body size and its links to breast cancer. Dr. Baker, Lead Investigator at Denmark’s Frederiksberg Hospital, has a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Cornell University. Her research focuses on clinical epidemiology.
A Multi-Omics Database for Tomato Research and Breeding
Ace. Beefsteak. Big Boy. Kumato. Early Girl. Roma. Sun Gold. San Marzano. These are just a few of the thousands of varieties of tomato plants available today. And while all of these varieties may be very different with respect to crop yield, disease resistance,...
Pathway to Success: Young Metabolomics Researchers Named in The Analytical Scientist’s Power List
The direct correlation of the metabolome to the phenotype means metabolomics is one of the most sought-after approaches for the study of disease and wellness, yet the separation, detection, quantification, and unambiguous identification of a chemically diverse...
Metabolomics Studies Benefit Biomedical Research
Professor Dr. Thomas Hankemeier, Head of the Division of Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology, LACDRLACDR is a center of excellence for multidisciplinary research into drug discovery and development, with a strong focus on metabolomics. As part of its research...
Maximize the use of your software. Buy only what you need
The latest releases of Analyst Software 1.7 and SCIEX OS Software 1.4 introduce a new licensing model called concurrent licensing. If you want flexibility and cost savings when purchasing and using your processing software, concurrent licensing is for you. How does...
3 Reasons to Upgrade to Analyst Software 1.7
Would you be surprised to know that the SCIEX QTRAP® and Triple Quad™ mass spectrometry systems are ideally suited to meet the needs of any lab? Even more so as new orders will ship with our flagship Analyst® Software 1.7. The software is the single LC-MS/MS software,...
On Demand Videos from the 2017 Global CESI-MS Symposium
The 2017 Global CESI-MS Symposium brought together KOLs and industry innovators from around the world to share their latest advancements using capillary electrophoresis integrated with electrospray ionization (CESI-MS) within the same device.
Why Microflow HILIC Chromatography for Targeted Metabolomics Applications?
I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Baljit Ubhi to discuss the top questions you’re asking in regards to using Microflow HILIIC Chromatography for Targeted Metabolomics. Here’s what Bal said:
Discover The Benefits of Knowledge Base Articles
Did you know you can access Knowledge Base Articles for trending user questions compiled and answered by SCIEX support experts? Doing so may help to reduce your support calls, not to mention downtime. Instead of waiting for a problem to occur, you can stay on top of it, and be a part of the solution. To give you an idea of trending articles, consider the how this past month saw questions and answers including:
How Easy Is It to Relocate a Mass Spectrometer?
When you’re in the process of moving your lab, across the corridor or to another country, there’s a lot to think about. Adding to the stress, there’s not always a lot of time to plan, or budget allocated for the process, especially in the case of unexpected urgent maintenance work.
SWATH Acquisition – Master of All Trades
SWATH® Acquisition is an innovative strategy for acquiring data on a TripleTOF® mass spectrometer. In a previous blog, we learned how SWATH works. Now let’s learn what it can do for different applications:
Data Independent Acquisition Mass Spectrometry with the Power of SWATH
There are many different methods in use today to acquire data on a mass spectrometer, but few have generated as much buzz in recent years as SWATH technology. First reported 5 years ago by Ruedi Aebersold and his group1, SWATH® Acquisition on a TripleTOF® instrument has rapidly become one of the premier acquisition strategies for identification and quantitation of complex samples. But what exactly is SWATH and why is it so powerful? In order to answer these questions, let’s first take a step back and look at the larger picture.
Vice President Biden Announces Agreement Naming Children’s Medical Research Institute’s ProCan Lab to the ‘Cancer Moonshot’ Initiative
A key goal of the ‘Cancer Moonshot’ initiative is the advancement of precision medicine, with the goal of making more targeted therapies available to more cancer patients. And researchers believe that the time is right, with the new technological innovations, the new insight into the biology of cancer and big improvements in the handling of ‘big data.’
Stoller Biomarker Discovery Centre, Addressing Some of the Biggest Issues in Medicine
The Stoller Biomarker Discovery Center, developed in partnership with SCIEX, was created to develop new omics technologies for biomarker research to understand the root cause of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune diseases. We initially announced our collaboration with the University of Manchester back in October 2015.
The History of Isotopic Labels for Quantitative Proteomics
Proteomics has become a vital tool for biological scientists performing research on the healthy and diseased states of living things. It involves the large scale and systematic analysis of all proteins within a given cell, tissue, or organism. Because proteins are regulated by many different internal and external stimuli, the proteome is dynamic and quantities of proteins can change from one state to the next. Therefore, in order to be of the highest utility, proteomics experiments need to both identify and quantify proteins so that comparative studies can be done, such as between healthy cells and tumor cells, or the comparison of different treatment regimens.
Taking care of your mass spectrometer—Onsite troubleshooting and maintenance training for today’s lab
Recently, we asked customers to tell us about their biggest challenges so we could customize training programs to meet the needs of today’s growing lab. Without hesitation, most of you said uptime and employee training are your most critical needs. As a result, our...
The Promise of Precision Medicine
Here is the latest update on the Worldwide Efforts to Accelerate Precision Medicine
The NIH recently issued a press release in early July announcing $55 million in awards. According to the release, the $55 million award in the fiscal year 2016 will go towards building the foundational partnerships and infrastructure needed to launch the Cohort Program of President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). The PMI Cohort Program is a landmark longitudinal research effort that aims to engage 1 million or more U.S. participants to improve the ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.
Why Study Lipids?
I had an opportunity to follow up with Steven M Watkins, Ph.D. to talk about the importance of studying lipids in disease. Steve has been working in the lipids field for over 20 years and is one of the foremost experts in lipid biology. Steve founded Lipomics in 2000, an early metabolomics company focused on quantitative lipidomics and had followed that company through a series of changes that led to its involvement in the clinical diagnostic development and global metabolomics. Steve authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications including several book chapters on lipids and lipid metabolism. His presentations on this topic are fascinating and very informative, so I wanted to capture some of his thinking here!
Improved complex sample processing for higher quality of results, reproducibility and depth of proteomic analysis
SCIEX partners to improve depth of proteome coverage
SCIEX and Pressure BioSciences address a major challenge for researchers performing complex sample preparation by marketing a complete solution to increase the depth, breadth, and reproducibility of protein extraction, digestion, and quantitation in all tissue types, especially challenging samples like tumors.
Industrialize Your Quantitative Proteomics Using a More Simplified Sample Prep
in part 1 and part 2 of this blog series we discussed how you can increase your efficiency for high throughput quantitative proteomics by industrializing your sample analysis and data processing. Microflow SWATH® Acquisition on your TripleTOF® system coupled with OneOmics™ data analysis tools allow you to run samples faster, collect data faster, and process your data files faster. It all adds up to getting more meaningful biological information in a shorter amount of time.
Industrialize Your Quantitative Proteomics with the OneOmics Project
For many labs, the days are long gone when it was acceptable to run only a few samples a week for your quantitative proteomics projects. The pressure for faster turn-around times, to support larger cohort studies, to sustain multiple research directions, and to transition from a purely unbiased discovery mode to verifying something truly unique and interesting, all demand a faster pace. Many labs are now being asked to analyze a hundred samples a week or more. In part 1 of this blog series, we saw how moving to a microflow SWATH workflow can dramatically increase your throughput with little compromise on overall results. In this part, we’ll address what to do with all of this data because it’s just no good if all we’ve done is move the bottleneck downstream.
Taking on Precision Medicine with Industrialized Proteomics
What if we could deliver the right treatment at the right time, to the right person to better, more effectively treat complex disease? This is the promise of precision medicine, to be able to approach complex disease treatment and prevention by taking into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.