Biweekly Analytical Insights - #3

Thanks for tuning in to the third edition of Biweekly Analytical Insights, and happy ASMS 2023 to all the mass spec folks in Houston!

This year's ASMS meeting is running from June 4th-8th in Houston, Texas. If you're attending the conference, stop by and see my colleagues from Wiley in Booth 622. We've got exciting developments on the way for MS data analysis!

This edition of the newsletter steps away from AI/machine learning to focus more on conventional developments in the industry. We will also place a large focus on the exciting new MS tech introduced at ASMS in the Laboratory Technology section and will wrap up with Agilent's recently announced financial results.

Analytical Chemistry News

GC/LC

• Researchers at Rapid Novor sequence functional antibody proteins directly from human blood - Rapid Novor announced that their REpAb? antibody discovery platform was able to successfully sequence a mixture of complex antibodies directly from the serum of a human patient after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Xiaobing Han, Principal Scientist for Antibody Discovery at Rapid Novor, comments: “This demonstrates a significant breakthrough in antibody discovery technology that bypasses the need to work with animal models, DNA, and cells. Sequencing functional antibody molecules produced and selected by the human immune system in response to a threat could mean a much more direct route to discovering safe and effective therapeutics”. Read more in their press release: Protein Sequencing Press Releases - Rapid Novor
• Researchers from the China University of Mining and Technology and Xuzhou Medical University use pattern recognition for the analysis of metabolites in E. coli strains - Using data from ESI-Orbitrap MS along with statistical pattern-recognition, the authors of a recent paper were able to rapidly and accurately identify strains of E. coli. They evaluate the results of five distinct clustering methods applied to metabolite MS data. Read more: Pattern recognition analysis of metabolites in Escherichia coli based on ESI-Orbitrap mass spectrometry - 2023 - Wiley Analytical Science
• Researchers from UC Davis and Sensit Ventures devise GC-MS method to determine the sex of chicken eggs early in incubation - By adapting commercially-available suction cups used for the handling of eggs to instead capture VOCs emitted by fertilized eggs, researchers were able to identify male and female embryos as early as 8 days from incubation with an 80% accuracy with only two minutes of sampling time. This represents a significant improvement on the current state-of-the-art technologies in this area, and they claim that the technology could easily be implemented in currently existing hatcheries to avoid having to sort chickens after birth and more economically divert male chickens to humane uses. Read more: Chicken Eggs Sexed by Scent | Technology Networks

Molecular Spectroscopy

• C&EN news talks about the emerging field of single-molecule mass measurements - Single molecule mass measurements, including techniques such as Mass Photometry, NEMS-MS, and CDMS provide complementary techniques to traditional structural analysis methods, and address some of the shortcomings in techniques like native MS. These techniques all take novel approaches towards measuring mass and Celia Arnaud of C&EN news summarizes them well in this article: Single-molecule mass measurements | C&EN Global Enterprise (acs.org)
• BioTechniques highlights the use of NIR in detecting food allergens - With a committed following, and continued advances in the interpretation of NIR data, this technique seems to frequently find new applications. It is a nondestructive, simple, and real-time technique to analyze samples that requires very little analyst training. Aisha Al-Janabi writes a great review in BioTechniques on the emerging application of NIR in detecting food allergies to replace or complement existing methods. Read the article here: NIR Spectroscopy Detects Food Allergens - BioTechniques
• Authors from the University of Tokyo write a review on emerging computational tools for Raman scattering imaging in Nature - Peterson et al. discuss the current limitations of Coherent Raman Scattering Microscopy, and how advanced computational tools like machine learning and compressive sensing can be used to overcome these limitations. Read more: The marriage of coherent Raman scattering imaging and advanced computational tools | Light: Science & Applications (nature.com)

Laboratory Technology News

GC/LC

• Thermo Fisher announces new Orbitrap Astral Mass Spectrometer - Coinciding with its debut at ASMS 2023, Thermo announced the latest addition to the Orbitrap family, the new Orbitrap Astral MS. This MS system combines three detectors: a quad, Orbitrap, and their novel Astral MS2 analyzer. The novel Astral analyzer complements the capabilities of the Orbitrap by allowing fast (200 Hz) and sensitive HRAM measurements synchronized with Orbitrap acquisition. The groundbreaking performance of this instrument highlights Thermo's commitment to innovate in the competitive field of large-molecule analyses. Read the details on their website: Orbitrap Astral Mass Spectrometer | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US
• Sciex launches IntaBio ZT System - At ASMS 2023, Sciex introduced the first fully-integrated microfluidic chip-based platform which combines the capabilities of icIEF separation and UV detection. This system can also be coupled to their ZenoTOF 7600 system, which allows for a complete separation, quantification, and identification workflow for biopharmaceutical charge variants and their proteoforms. Read more in their press release: SCIEX launches the Intabio ZT system at ASMS 2023
• Bruker announces first fully-integrated DART triple-quad system - At ASMS 2023, Bruker announced the first commercially available MS system with a fully integrated DART (Direct Analysis In Real-Time) ionization source. This system is intended to address the need for simple, cost-effective, and chromatography-free routine analyses. The release of this system coincided with Bruker's release of their new timsTOF system for large-molecule analyses, and highlights Bruker's ambition to leverage innovation to gain market share in both existing and emerging application areas. Read more about these systems on their website: Bruker Corporation - Press Releases
• Read more about all the exciting product releases at ASMS 2023 on their website: Annual Conference Homepage (asms.org)

Molecular Spectroscopy

• Wiley Science Solutions announces development and commercialization of machine learning predicted spectral libraries - Leveraging their expertise in spectral data interpretation and extensive spectral libraries, Wiley Science Solutions announced the active development and commercialization of machine learning predicted spectral libraries for a variety of techniques, starting with a predicted IR library slated for release in 2023. Read more: Machine Learning and Prediction at Wiley Science Solutions - Wiley Science Solutions
• Digital Surf Announces Version 10 of their Mountains? software suite for surface analysis - The release of version 10 of Mountains? rounds out their software suite with the addition of MountainsImage? for light microscopy image analysis. Version 10 also sees the addition of in MountainsSpectral? Analyze to allow for spectral analysis, and several new modules to complement existing capabilities. Read more: What’s new in version 10? - Digital Surf

Industry Insights*

• Agilent announced their Q2 results on May 23 showing a solid 6.8% YoY growth, however they decreased their yearly outlook from $7.03-7.10 billion to $6.93-7.03 billion to more accurately reflect challenging market headwinds. This caused a -10% correction in stock price the following trading day. Mike McMullen, CEO, commented on their outlook: “Outside of these early-stage biotechs, the order funnel continues to be healthy, but it has taken a longer time for orders to be approved, slowing deal velocity and [the generation of] some new orders. We expect this constrained capital environment to remain in place throughout the course of our fiscal year. Because of these factors, we are taking a more cautious approach to the second half and have revised our forecast downward.” Read more in their press release: Agilent Technologies, Inc. - Agilent Reports Second-Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results

*This edition of the newsletter only covers financial results for major analytical instrument manufacturers reported between May 23rd and June 6th. For an expanded look at less-recent financial results, please see the previous edition of the newsletter: Biweekly Analytical Insights

Meet the Author

Nekoda Harris has a background in analytical method development, organic synthesis, and software for the laboratory. He currently works for Wiley's Science Solutions division where he helps scientists gain access to spectral reference data and advanced laboratory software tools. You are always welcome to provide comments and feedback with him on LinkedIn at: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/nekoda-harris