Parallelized Acquisition of Orbitrap and Astral Analyzers Enables High-Throughput Quantitative Analysis

Abstract The growing trend towards high-throughput proteomics demands rapid liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) cycles that limit the available time to gather the large numbers of MS/MS fragmentation spectra required for identification. Orbitrap analyzers scale performance with acquisition time, and necessarily sacrifice sensitivity and resolving power to deliver higher acquisition rates. We developed a new mass spectrometer that combines a mass resolving quadrupole, the Orbitrap and the novel Asymmetric Track Lossless (Astral) analyzer. The new hybrid instrument enables faster acquisition of high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) MS/MS spectra compared to state-of-the-art mass spectrometers. Accordingly, new proteomics methods were developed that leverage the strengths of each HRAM analyzer, whereby the Orbitrap analyzer performs full scans with high dynamic range and resolution, synchronized with Astral analyzer’s acquisition of fast and sensitive HRAM MS/MS scans. Substantial improvements are demonstrated over previous methods using current state-of-the-art mass spectrometers. Abstract Figure