Higher-Throughput Proteome Profiling Enabled by Parallelized Pre-Accumulation and Optimized Ion Processing in the...

High-throughput proteomics is critical for understanding biological processes, enabling large-scale studies such as biomarker discovery and systems biology. However, current mass spectrometry technologies face limitations in speed, sensitivity, and scalability for analyzing large sample cohorts. The Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Astral Zoom mass spectrometer (MS) was developed to address these limitations by improving acquisition speed, ion utilization, and spectral processing, which are all essential for advancing proteome depth in high-throughput proteomics. The Orbitrap Astral Zoom MS achieves ultra-fast MS/MS scan rates of up to 270 Hz with enhanced ion utilization through pre-accumulation, enabling the identification of ∼100,000 unique peptides and >8400 proteins in a single 300 samples-per-day analysis of human cell lysate. The optimized system reduces analysis time by 40%, achieves near-complete proteome coverage (>12,000 proteins) in 2.7 h, and enables ultra-high-throughput workflows, identifying >7000 proteins in a 500 samples-per-day method with exceptional reproducibility (pairwise Pearson correlations >0.99). These advancements establish the Orbitrap Astral Zoom MS among the fastest and most sensitive instruments under the tested conditions, significantly enhancing speed, sensitivity, and scalability, paving the way for routine large-scale proteomics with applications in clinical research and systems biology.