Novel Mass Spectroscopy-Based Analysis System May Revolutionize Proteomics Research

An American-Swiss collaborative effort has resulted in a new mass spectrometry-based proteomics research method that can quantify nearly all peptides and proteins in a sample from a single analysis.

A team comprised of investigators from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich; Switzerland) and their colleagues from the American company AB SCIEX (Framingham, MA, USA) have completed development of the groundbreaking mass spectrometry system, MS/MSALL with SWATH Acquisition.

This system, which is fully described in the January 18, 2012, online edition of the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, uses a data-independent MS/MS acquisition method to systematically generate complete, high-specificity fragment ion maps that can be queried for the presence and quantity of any protein of interest using a targeted data analysis strategy. The new method depends on AB SCIEX’s advanced hybrid quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometer, the TripleTOF 5600 System.

“SWATH Acquisition allows us to explore multiplexed MS/MS datasets to a level that was not possible with traditional clustering or database approaches,” said senior author Dr. Ruedi Aebersold, professor of molecular biology at ETH Zurich. “By collaborating with AB SCIEX to develop the technique on the TripleTOF 5600, we have made this breakthrough method available for proteomics researchers to conduct comprehensive quantitation on the entire proteome.”

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ETH Zurich
AB SCIEX