Mass Spectrometry

Joweria, Mahnoor, Firdous, Fatema, Zehra

 What is Mass Spectrometry
• Mass spectrometry is an analytical tool useful for measuring the mass-to-
charge ratio (m/z) of one or more molecules present in a sample. These
measurements can often be used to calculate the exact molecular weight of
the sample components as well.

• It is also used to quantify known materials, to identify unknown

compounds within a sample, and to elucidate the structure and chemical
properties of different molecules.

• It studies the effect of ionizing energy on molecules.

 Overview

+ The complete process involves the conversion of the

sample into gaseous ions, with or without
fragmentation, which are then characterized by their
mass to charge ratios (m/z) and relative abundances.

+ It depends upon chemical reactions in the gas phase

in which sample molecules are consumed during the
formation of ionic and neutral species.
Provides structural Identify an unknown Determine the relative
information Studies the effect of abundance
compound
ionization energy of each isotope
“ Applications of Mass
Spectrometry

”
—Someone Famous
 Specific applications of mass spectrometry include:

• Drug testing and discovery.

• Food contamination detection.

• Pesticide residues analysis.

• Isotope ratio determination

• Protein identification

• Carbon Dating
What Is This
Topic
About?

In proteomics - Characterization of proteins and

protein complexes, sequencing of peptides, and
identification of posttranslational modifications.
 In Metabolomics

• Cancer screening and diagnosis.

• Global metabolic fingerprinting analysis.
• Biomarker discovery and profiling.
• Biofuels generation and use.
• Lipidomics studies.
• Metabolic disorder profiling.
 In environmental
analysis

• drinking water testing.

• pesticide screening and quantitation.
• soil contamination assessment.
• carbon dioxide and pollution monitoring.
• trace elemental analysis of heavy metals
leaching.
 In pharmaceutical analysis

+Drug discovery and absorption.

+Distribution, metabolism, and

elimination (ADME) studies.

+Pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamics analyses.

+Metabolite screening, and preclinical

development.
It is used by separating molecular ions on the basis of their
mass and charge to determine the molecular weight of
compounds.

Mass spectrometry is a powerful technique with many different

applications in biology, chemistry, and physics, but also in
clinical medicine and even in space exploration.
Thank you