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Title: MODERN MASS SPECTROMETRY - FOUR TYPES OF USER FRIENDLY INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS FOR LIPID CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

Author
item Moreau, Robert
item Nunez, Alberto

Submitted to: Inform
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/9/2003
Publication Date: 9/20/2003
Citation: Modern mass spectrometry - Four types of user-friendly instruments and their applications for lipid chemistry and biochemistry.Inform 14(9)p.536-539.2003

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: During the last thirty years mass spectrometry has progressed from being a very specialized field of analytical chemistry, practiced by a limited number of spectrometrists, to become a valuable and popular tool that is widely used in fats and oils research and in many areas of medical and biological sciences. The first mass spectrometry instruments were developed in the early 1900's (Table 1). Early applications for these instruments include the discovery of various small molecules (O2, N2, CO, CO2, and methane) and measurement of their molecular masses. During the 1930's, mass spectrometry began to be a valuable tool for organic chemists. In the 1970's Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) emerged as a powerful and popular tool for lipid structural identification, and the public databases now contain structural information on fatty acids and other lipids. In the 1980's several interfaces were developed to couple High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). In the 1990's these LC-MS interfaces were commercialized, miniaturized, and 'married' to powerful PC-based software, and these tools have been applied to many areas of lipid research. In recent years MALDI-TOF MS (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry) has become a valuable new tool for 'proteomics' research and several new applications have been developed for lipid research.