October 25, 2012 (Peabody, MA) — A new application note from JEOL demonstrates that high mass resolving power can be maintained for matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) imaging of biological specimens by using a TOF system with a very long flight path.
The JEOL SpiralTOF MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometer has unique multi-turn ion optics that pack a 17-meter flight path into a compact 1-meter mass analyzer. The instrument is capable of a resolving power of >60,000, the highest resolving power commercially available in a MALDI-TOF system. When equipped with the MS/MS option, the SpiralTOF is the only TOF/TOF system capable of monoisotopic precursor selection.
One consequence of the long flight path is that topographic differences in the sample have little effect on the measured mass spectrum. “In other words, the SpiralTOF can maintain high mass resolution and high mass accuracy while imaging, even if the sample is not flat,” said Dr. Robert (Chip) Cody, Mass Spectrometry Product Manager at JEOL. This was also demonstrated in an earlier applications note describing the relationship between crystal condition and mass resolving power and accuracy.
A study carried out by JEOL Ltd. in collaboration with the Mass Spectrometry Group in the Department of Physics, at the Graduate School of Science of Osaka University used MALDI imaging to examine a section of mouse brain. Because of its long flight path, the SpiralTOF was able to create images showing separate spatial distributions for two phospholipids with masses that differed by only 90 millimass units!
The new tissue imaging application note and more than 20 additional SpiralTOF notes can be downloaded at www.jeolusa.com.
https://www.jeolusa.com/NEWS-EVENTS/Press-Releases/PostId/125/Maintaining-High-Mass-Resolution-for-Tissue-Imaging-with-the-JEOL-SpiralTOF