INTEGRATING TRANSIENT RECORDER FOR TOF MASS SPECCTROMETRY

MASS SPECTROMETRY (MS) COMBINED WITH GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, (GC) IS THE MOST POWERFUL TECHNIQUE AVAILABLE FOR IDENTIFYING BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS AND FOR THE SELECTIVE DETECTION OF DRUG METABOLITES. RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN GC RESOLUTION HAVE SURPASSED INCREASES IN THE SPEED AND SENSITIVITY OF MS, THUS PREVENTING THIS WIDELY-USED COMBINATION FROM ACHIEVING ITS FULL POTENTIAL. TIME-OF-FLIGHT MS (TOFMS), COMBINED WITH HIGH-SPEED, HIGH-EFFICIENCY INTEGRATING TRANSIENT RECORDER (ITR) BUILT AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY (MSU) HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED TO GC-TOFMS. HOWEVER, THE MSU-ITR IS BASED ON CUMBERSOME AND SOMEWHAT ESOTERIC HIGH-SPEED ELECTRONICS. THIS PHASE I GRANT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF A NOVELAND MUCH SIMPLER ITR DESIGN AND, HENCE, A COMMERCIALLY VIABLE GC-TOFMS-ITR INSTRUMENT FOR ENHANCED BIOANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES. A GREATLY SIMPLIFIED ITR DESIGN, WHICH USES "MASS-MAPPED ACQUISITION" TO REDUCE THE REQUIRED DATA ACQUISITION RATE WITHOUT LOSS OF TIME (MASS) RESOLUTION, WILL BE DEVELOPED. EACH SECOND, UP TO 40 SCAN FILES WILL BEPRODUCED BY SUMMING 125 TO 5,000 TOF TRANSIENTS. IN PHASE II, THIS ITR WILL BE INTEGRATED WITH A NOVEL TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER TO PROVIDE UNIT MASS RESOLUTION IN THE RANGE FROM 1 TO 1,000MU AND A SENSITIVITY, FOR 40 COMPLETE MASS SPECTRA PER SECOND, COMPARABLE TO THAT ACHIEVED PRESENTLY ONLY BY SELECTED-ION MONITORING TECHNIQUES. MASS SPECTROMETRY (MS) COMBINED WITH GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, (GC) IS THE MOST POWERFUL TECHNIQUE AVAILABLE FOR IDENTIFYING BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS AND FOR THE SELECTIVE DETECTION OF DRUG METABOLITES. RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN GC RESOLUTION HAVE SURPASSED INCREASES IN THE SPEED AND SENSITIVITY OF MS, THUS PREVENTING THIS WIDELY-USED COMBINATION FROM ACHIEVING ITS FULL POTENTIAL. TIME-OF-FLIGHT MS (TOFMS), COMBINED WITH HIGH-SPEED, HIGH-EFFICIENCY INTEGRATING TRANSIENT RECORDER (ITR) BUILT AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY (MSU) HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED TO GC-TOFMS. HOWEVER, THE MSU-ITR IS BASED ON CUMBERSOME AND SOMEWHAT ESOTERIC HIGH-SPEED ELECTRONICS. THIS PHASE I GRANT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF A NOVELAND MUCH SIMPLER ITR DESIGN AND, HENCE, A COMMERCIALLY VIABLE GC-TOFMS-ITR INSTRUMENT FOR ENHANCED BIOANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES. A GREATLY SIMPLIFIED ITR DESIGN, WHICH USES "MASS-MAPPED ACQUISITION" TO REDUCE THE REQUIRED DATA ACQUISITION RATE WITHOUT LOSS OF TIME (MASS) RESOLUTION, WILL BE DEVELOPED. EACH SECOND, UP TO 40 SCAN FILES WILL BEPRODUCED BY SUMMING 125 TO 5,000 TOF TRANSIENTS. IN PHASE II, THIS ITR WILL BE INTEGRATED WITH A NOVEL TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER TO PROVIDE UNIT MASS RESOLUTION IN THE RANGE FROM 1 TO 1,000MU AND A SENSITIVITY, FOR 40 COMPLETE MASS SPECTRA PER SECOND, COMPARABLE TO THAT ACHIEVED PRESENTLY ONLY BY SELECTED-ION MONITORING TECHNIQUES.