Insight Pharma Reports Announces Next-Generation Mass Spectrometry

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 4, 2011 - NEEDHAM, MASS. – Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Insight Pharma Reports announces the Next-Generation Mass Spectrometry: Technology Advances and Applications Report, Authored by K. John Morrow, Jr., PhD.

Advances in biomedical instrumentation are enabling a new perspective that could not have been achieved even a decade ago. Mass spectrometry is the most significant and far reaching of these developments, allowing the generation of data in the medical sciences that brings new insights into critical questions. This report analyzes:
• Physical principles and analytical applications of mass spectrometry
•The role of mass spectrometry in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics
•Advances in mass spectrometry instrumentation and methods
•Current and emerging applications of mass spectrometry
•Future prospects for the mass spectrometry industry

Mass spectrometry is a highly sophisticated instrumentation technology that has emerged as the premier method for the analytical definition of biomolecules. This newly defined role has been the result of significant improvements in these instruments, combined with the introduction of a number of new approaches to preparation and separation of the target molecules.

Next-Generation Mass Spectrometry: Technology Advances and Applications focuses on the role that mass spectrometry has played in the advance of biotechnology. In recent years, it has morphed from a costly and cumbersome machine, sequestered within the domain of analytical chemistry, to an amiable companion, accessible both financially and technically to laboratories that are not specialized in its many uses and applications. Given the limitations of large and complex instruments of the past, it is clear that the direction of evolution of these devices will be toward greater specialization with attendant simplification. This process is well underway, and in this report we examine some of the most imaginative directions in the engineering of new generations of mass spectrometers.

We briefly review the history of mass spectrometry and consider (in a non-mathematical framework) the underlying physical principles that dictate the construction and limitations of mass spectrometers. Today mass spectrometry is characterized by rapid advances in technology, driven by manufacturers’ engineering applications. It is acknowledged to be the third most powerful spectral technique in the structural elucidation of unknown organic compounds, trumped only by X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy. But it offers the unsurpassed features of easy coupling to gas-phase and liquid-phase separation techniques, in addition to its extremely high sensitivity and low sample consumption.

In reviewing mass spectrometry instrumentation, Next-Generation Mass Spectrometry: Technology Advances and Applications considers hardware designed to move fragile molecules into a gaseous ionized state, where they can be subsequently analyzed. These include electrospray ionization, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), and surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI). Following the vaporization/ionization procedure, the sample is introduced into the mass analyzer, of which there are many types, as presented in this report. As evidenced by our discussion, analyzers are numerous and designed for a variety of applications. We review the more significant applications of mass spec technology, including within the areas of proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, forensics, environmental monitoring, and data analysis.

Finally, we draw conclusions about the industry’s future prospects. Mass spectrometry, as the leading technology for the characterization of macromolecules, is likely in the coming years to produce breakthrough advances in the diagnosis and understanding of a host of recalcitrant diseases.  

For more information and to purchase this Insight Pharma Report, visit: http://www.insightpharmareports.com

About Insight Pharma Reports
Insight Pharma Reports are written by experts in consulting and industry who collaborate with us to provide a series of reports that evaluate the salient issues in pharmaceutical technology, business, and therapy markets. Insight Pharma Reports are used by leading pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic, consulting, and financial companies to keep abreast of the latest advances in pharmaceutical R&D, their potential applications and business impacts, and their current and future position in the marketplace. Insight Pharma Reports is a division within Cambridge Healthtech Institute. http://insightpharmareports.com

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Insight Pharma Reports are written by experts in consulting and industry who collaborate with us to provide a series of reports that evaluate the salient issues in pharmaceutical technology, business, and therapy markets.

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