Ultra-High-Throughput Ambient MS: Direct Analysis at 22 Samples per Second by Infrared Matrix-Assisted Laser...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Mass Spectrometry

Background:

• Infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption electrospray ionization (IR-MALDESI) is an ambient-direct sampling technique.
• Current applications focus on biochemical screening of compound libraries.
• Development of higher throughput methods is crucial for large-scale screening.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an ultra-high-throughput continuous motion IR-MALDESI sampling approach.
• To assess the performance of this new method in terms of speed, carryover, and precision.
• To demonstrate its utility in parallel kinetics studies and long-term repeatability.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a continuous motion system for IR-MALDESI.
• Acquisition of data at rates up to 22.7 samples per second from 384-well plates.
• Analysis of analyte carryover and signal intensity relative standard deviations (RSD).
• Application in a 384-sample parallel kinetics study using an IDH1 enzyme assay.
• Demonstration of long-term repeatability over 300 microtiter plate reads.

Main Results:

• Achieved data acquisition rates of 22.7 samples/second.
• Observed less than 1% analyte carryover at top speed.
• Reported RSDs of 11.5% and 20.9% for tested analytes.
• Successfully performed parallel kinetics studies with ~30 s time resolution.
• Demonstrated high repeatability (RSDs < 8.14%) over 115,200 samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed continuous motion IR-MALDESI approach significantly enhances throughput for mass spectrometry-based screening.
• This method surpasses existing direct sampling techniques in speed and efficiency for compound library analysis.
• IR-MALDESI is a viable and powerful tool for high-throughput, label-free biochemical screening and kinetics studies.