The Faculty of Pharmacy of the JUMC now operates its own high-end tandem mass spectrometer. After several days in training, the staff of the Faculty’s Chair in Toxicology started their work with the new equipment.

The Waters™ Xevo™ TQD device is a high-end tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer for high-performance UPLC-MS/MS applications. The technology of double orthogonal geometry of the ion source, known as Z-spray, allows for the efficient separation of neutral molecules, thus increasing sensitivity of analytical methods by means of reducing the overall effect of the matrix. Owing to its wide range of ionization options, such as electrospray (ES), atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI), mixed ESCI mode, atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP), the Xevo TQD spectrometer enables researchers to analyse a large gamut of compounds, from highly polar to nonpolar ones, while minimizing the time required for source maintenance. The spectrometer is capable of simultaneously recording data in the positive and negative ionization modes.

The Xevo TQD spectrometer is equipped with a collision cell featuring the unique T-Wave ™ technology, thanks to which the speed of parental and filial ions can be controlled, thus improving the signal stability, increasing repetitiveness, speed and sensitivity of measurements. The use of innovative RADAR™ technology makes the device capable of simultaneous acquisition of the data from multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and from the full scan, which allows the researchers to determine in rapid time the effect of the matrix on the analyte, reducing the length of the analytic method introduction process.

The spectrometer is compatible with the UltraPerformance liquid chromatographic system UPLC Acquity H-Class PLUS equipped in a detector using a photodiode array matrix. Data acquisition and processing is managed by the MassLynx software.

Interested researchers may have access to the device, which will be used, among other things, in measurement of compound masses, multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) for quantitative and qualitative identification of analytes, development and validation of methods that allow for the analysis of low and macromolecular compounds in biological material, research into pharmacokinetic and toxicological profile assessment of new compounds, products of chemical synthesis, potential medicines, and in identification of metabolites and search for metabolic pathways. The equipment will also be used in toxicological analysis of selected compounds in biological fluids, determination of medicine residues in environmental samples, determination of biomarkers of xenobiotic exposure, and in the search for the newly emerging and unidentified environmental pollutions.

Plans have also been made for the device to be employed in oenological analyses concerned with the characteristics of the polyphenol fraction in grape wines and in the assessment of the effect of polyphenols and wine extracts on living organisms.

The purchase of the device has been funded from the budget of the qLife Priority Research Area under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.

The article on the qLife PRA website:

https://qlife.cm-uj.krakow.pl/aktualnosci/nowoczesny-tandemowy-spektrometr-mas/