If you're like many in the biotech industry who don't work with LCMS instruments regularly, it's easy to see a Mass Spectrometer connected via PEEK tubing to an HPLC as a mysterious black box that simply produces results. Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry have been around for nearly a century, and the process seems straightforward: a sample is prepared, processed, and analyzed by the instrument. It all seems very simple -- until you pierce the veil and see what's happening behind the scenes.
What is LC-MS instrument technology?
The quick answer to the question, 'What is LC/MS?' is that the acronym stands for Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry. The LCMS detector, sometimes has other names, such as LCMS MS, LCMS/MS, LC/MS/MS or even LCMS mass spec. The longer answer is that LC/MS is a type of analytical instrument that specializes in the separation and identification of simple and complex compounds.
LC/MS is primarily used to analyze small and large molecule analytes such as peptides, metabolites, and proteins present in biological samples. Consequently, you will see an LC/MS lab most commonly in the fields of toxicology, endocrinology and pharmaceutical research.
Additionally, an LC/MS lab test can provide details and data points about concentrations of compounds in the sample, which help chemists and prescribing doctors make informed decisions about medical decisions such as treatment plans and proper dosing of medications we are prescribed and products we use every day.
How does LCMS work?
Understanding how an LC-MS instrument works is helpful when identifying what is going wrong with a machine.
First, prepared samples are loaded and injected by an autosampler into the LC, whereby a series of pumps use a solvent (mobile phase) to move the sample downstream toward an analytical column.
As the mobile phase sample mixture flows through the column, the column media chemically attracts the compounds of interest, capturing that compound in the analytical column. The mobile phase is then changed and the compound of interest is transported towards the detector.
When the sample reaches the mass spectrometer, an ionization source charges it as it enters. This ionization allows further separation of any undesired compounds remaining after LC separation, think of it as a highly complex filtering process. A series of three separate quadrupoles apply a resonant electric field along the sample's path to further separate the sample from any remaining undesired testing compounds.
The final filtered ionized sample is directed into the detector. The detector is highly sensitive to electrical charge, allowing it to send an electrical signal when encountering an ionized sample. The remaining analytes, having been selected through the filter/selection process are then “measured” by the detector. Then, the control software quantitates the results, confirming the presence of the desired analyte.
How to maintain LCMS instruments
Your team relies on your LC/MS instruments, and your clients count on accurate analysis from the LCMS lab tests While it’s important to know how does LCMS work, it’s also important that you can trust your instruments and be confident in the final results.
You can purchase an LCMS instrument from any number of vendors and websites, but when you partner with an experienced team like Elite LCMS Services, you also get peace of mind that your LCMS/MS services will have minimal downtime. Elite’s annual service plans provide you that extra level of comfort knowing that when you need maintenance or repairs for your LCMS/MS instrument, they’ll be accurate, thorough, and reliable.
And the next time you get asked those questions, you can easily answer the ‘How does LCMS work?’ question to enlighten a new friend or secure that new client.
Comments