The 61st annual American Society of Mass Spectrometry conference (ASMS) was held this year at the downtown convention center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Attendance totaled 6,139, down from 6,277 last year (see IBO 5/31/12).

The number of new instrument introductions was clearly lower at this year’s event in contrast to the last several years. However, this may have had more to do with vendors introducing new MS systems as soon as they were ready to release as opposed to waiting until ASMS, rather than a slowdown in spending and effort to develop new and improved systems. The pace of innovation in the industry has been extremely high over the last several years, and it is hard to expect that to have continued, regardless of the economic environment.

Shimadzu, which is among the leading competitors in the MALDI-TOF MS market, expanded its range of MALDI-TOF systems at this year’s show with the introduction of the MALDI-7090 MALDI-TOF/TOF MS. The new system is a research instrument that provides top-end performance and is a higher-end product than Shimadzu’s range of AXIMA MALDI-TOF instruments. Shimadzu’s AXIMA line of four models for routine analyses includes the Resonance TOF/TOF model, and Shimadzu will continue to offer the Resonance, which provides a significantly lower price/performance point compared with the new system. The MALDI-7090 features a 2 kHz laser, which is on par with the fastest MALDI lasers of any competitor, according to the company. The system also offers 10,000 FWHM resolution in both MS and MS/MS modes and a 10-plate loader. Pricing for the MALDI-7090 will be in the neighborhood of $600,000, but will vary depending on region and options.

Bruker had the most diverse range of new system introductions at this year’s ASMS meeting. In the triple quadrupole LC/MS area, which Bruker first entered less than a year ago, the company introduced the EVOQ Elite ER. The new model is the third product in the EVOQ product line and features an expanded m/z range of 10–2,000, which is intended specifically to expand protein and peptide coverage for peptide-quantitation applications.

Among Bruker’s wide range of Q-TOF MS systems, the company upgraded its maXis Impact model to the new Impact HD model by incorporating the new CaptiveSpray nanoBooster ionization source, and increasing the dynamic range to five orders of magnitude. The new Q-TOF model is expected to be priced near $400,000. The CaptiveSpray nanoBooster is the latest iteration of the CaptiveSpray product line, which works with Bruker’s full range of LC/MS systems, and is designed to drive up protein identification rates in proteomics and glycoanalysis applications.

Finally, Bruker has developed an all-new FT-ICR cell, which the company has branded ParaCell, and incorporated it into the new SolariX XR FT/MS system. The new system once again pushes the maximum achievable resolution of commercial MS instrumentation at up to 10 million resolving power, and can still provide 650,000 resolution for one-second acquisitions. The system incorporates a dual source that enables switching between atmospheric pressure ionization and MALDI in about five seconds. The SolariX XR is priced at just under $1 million.

After introducing 14 new systems over the past 18 months, AB SCIEX did not have any new instrument launches at this year’s ASMS meeting. The company’s most recently introduced MS is the API 3200MD, which was introduced in May. It is a CE-IVD-approved system in Europe that is based on the API 3200 triple quadrupole and Q-Trap platform. The company also announced improvements to its SWATCH Acquisition technique, including updated data scoring and improved speed and scale. The company also launched a new version of its ProteinPilot software that is faster and able to handle larger data sets.

Another of the major MS suppliers that did not use this year’s ASMS to launch any new MS instruments was Agilent Technologies. The company has launched a number of major new systems over the last two years, the most recent of which was the 7890B GC and 5977A GC/MSD, which update what are among Agilent’s most important flagship products. However, the company did announce several technology upgrades of its current fleet of instruments. Agilent announced that it has doubled the scan speed of its 6100 Series single quadrupole LC/MS systems, thus improving sample throughput, as well as improving compatibility with UHPLC systems, such as Agilent’s 1290 Infinity LC system.

Agilent also announced its new StreamSelect LC/MS solution, which allows the multiplexing of two Agilent 1200 series HPLCs with a single Agilent 6400 triple quadrupole LC/MS. Agilent also introduced its own ion mobility technology, which will be available on its top-tier Q-TOF LC/MS model, the 6550, later this year.

Although not a new MS instrument, Agilent’s RapidFire 365 high-throughput SPE sample preparation system was introduced at the ASMS meeting. The new system requires about one-tenth of the solvent of conventional LC/MS workflows, according to the company. One of the major improvements over the RapidFire 300 is increased plate capacity, which allows it to run up to 60 hours unattended and process more than 20,000 injections, therefore enabling over-the-weekend runs. The system will sell for between $250,000 and $300,000, excluding a MS.

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched several significant new MS systems at this year’s ASMS. First off, the company significantly updated its triple quadrupole LC/MS product line with the introduction of the TSQ Quantiva and TSQ Endura models. The Quantiva is the company’s new premier triple quadrupole model and features an m/z range of 10–3,400 and attogram sensitivity, with an eye toward peptide quantitation, metabolomics and biopharmaceutical QA/QC. The Endura is Thermo’s new workhorse model and has an m/z range of 10–1,850.

The two new triple quadrupole systems will be priced similarly to competitive instruments with comparable performance. Thermo plans to continue to offer the current TSQ Quantum Access as well, while phasing out its other triple quadrupole LC/MS models by the end of the year. For the aftermarket, Thermo released the Thermo Scientific iodo TMT (tandem mass tags) reagent and labeling kit for measuring protein and peptide cysteine modifications.

Waters’s new introduction at this year’s ASMS was the SYNAPT G2-Si, which is an update of its current top-end Q-TOF model. Waters has been a pioneer of incorporating ion mobility spectrometry into commercial LC/MS systems, with the use of its Travelling Wave (T-Wave) technology. This latest Q-TOF variant utilizes the T-Wave technology along with new data acquisition and informatics technology and software to provide additional information and improved confidence to the end-user. The SYNAPT G2-Si is expected to be priced in the mid-$500,000s.

PerkinElmer expanded its presence in the GC/MS market with its introduction of the AxION iQT, a Q-TOF instrument that is designed to compete directly against triple quadrupole GC/MS systems. The system can select and analyze up to 500 precursor ions per second and scan at one million units per second, which provides the strong compound identification capabilities that are typically expected of Q-TOF instruments. However, PerkinElmer has been able to achieve eight orders of dynamic range as well, and claims that the AxION iQT offers greater quantitative capability than existing triple quadrupole GC/MS systems.

Another novel feature of the new system is the Cold electrospray ionization (EI) source, which greatly improves molecular ion concentrations and is targeted at applications including steroids and hydrocarbons. The new system includes both the Cold EI source and conventional EI and chemical ionization sources. It is expected to begin shipping later this year. The AxION iQT is priced at under $200,000 including the GC, but is also available without a GC for $10,000 less. It can be configured for use with popular Agilent GC systems as well. PerkinElmer has partnered with CTC Analytics to develop the AxION Sample Manager, based on the CTC PAL technology, for automated sample preparation.

While the goliaths of the MS industry typically draw the vast majority of attention at the ASMS meeting, a small Turkish company officially launched its new triple quadrupole LC/MS–based system at this year’s show. Zivak Technologies, which is a fairly recent start-up, is focused on the clinical diagnostics industry. It entered the triple quadrupole LC/MS system market with the introduction of the ZinMass 200 Analyzer Series. The three models include not only integrated HPLC and MS systems, but an integrated sample preparation automation system that is designed to perform all the required steps for a wide variety of common clinical diagnostic tests. Not only does Zivak offer a complete system solution for clinical diagnostics, but it also offers all of the software, standards and reagents required for targeted applications as part of its strategy to be a single-source supplier to clinical diagnostic laboratories. The new analyzers are CE-IVD approved for the European market, and the company is looking to partner with a larger company to work toward FDA approval.

Next year’s ASMS will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, from June 15 to June 19.