Ultra-high-throughput mass spectrometry in drug discovery: fundamentals and recent advances

Ultra-high-throughput mass spectrometry, uHT-MS, is a technology that utilizes ionization and sample delivery technologies optimized to enable sampling from well plates at > 1 sample per second. These technologies do not need a chromatographic separation step and can be utilized in a wide variety of assays to detect a broad range of analytes including small molecules, lipids, and proteins.

This manuscript provides a brief historical review of high-throughput mass spectrometry and the recently developed technologies that have enabled uHT-MS. The report also provides examples and references on how uHT-MS has been used in biochemical and chemical assays, nuisance compound profiling, protein analysis and high throughput experimentation for chemical synthesis.

The fast analysis time provided by uHT-MS is transforming how biochemical and chemical assays are performed in drug discovery. The potential to associate phenotypic responses produced by 1000's of compound treatments with changes in endogenous metabolite and lipid signals is becoming feasible. With the augmentation of simple, fast, high-throughput sample preparation, the scope of uHT-MS usage will increase. However, it likely will not supplant LC-MS for analyses that require low detection limits from complex matrices or characterization of complex biotherapeutics such as antibody-drug conjugates.