August 11, 2021 – MSDG Meeting

Abstract:  Label-free, MS-based analysis is routinely used throughout drug discovery to help drive important decision-making and enable lead discovery, hit triaging and lead optimization. MS-based methodologies have traditionally relied upon liquid chromatography (LC) or on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) as front-end sample clean-up mechanisms. These approaches have slow cycle times (> 10 seconds/sample) that often aren’t amenable to high throughput screening assays conducted in 384- or 1536-well plates. Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry is a recently developed high-throughput MS approach that combines acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) with an open-port interface (OPI) to enable direct sample introduction from plates into the mass spectrometer for analysis. Using the acoustic ejection mass spectrometer system, we have demonstrated analytical throughput speeds as fast as 1 second-per-sample for multiple screening assays. This remarkable improvement in MS cycle time, approaching that of optical plate readers, has resulted in increased capacity and faster turn-around-time for reading many critical early drug discovery studies such as liability assessment and activity-based screens, and has the potential to impact many other areas within drug discovery.

Abstract:  High resolution mass spectrometry has continued to grow as new application areas are constantly emerging. Here, we will present and discuss new developments which addresses both sensitivity and structural characterization needs for a variety of application areas for both small and large molecules in Life Sciences Multi-Omics and also in Drug Discovery..