Waters introduces SYNAPT G2-S at 59th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry

Waters CorporationJun 6 2011

Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) today introduced the SYNAPT® G2-S High Definition Mass Spectrometer, representing a significant step forward in performance for High Definition Mass Spectrometry. The SYNAPT G2-S incorporates both high-sensitivity Waters StepWave™ ion transfer optics and Triwave® ion mobility technologies along with a suite of new informatics tools to take qualitative and quantitative high resolution performance to a new level.

SYNAPT G2-S provides a 30X improvement in signal intensity for mass spectral peaks, better than a 5X improvement in signal-to-noise, and up to a 10-fold improvement in limits of quantitation over previous-generation mass spectrometers. The significant increase in sensitivity, together with the unrivalled selectivity and analytical peak capacity made possible by ion mobility separations, allows the SYNAPT G2-Stoidentify and quantify sample analytes at lower concentrations than any other high resolution mass spectrometer and easily and routinely reveal details about complex samples that were previously difficult or impossible to obtain. Introduced at the 59th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry, the SYNAPT G2-S is expected to begin shipping at the end of September.

StepWave ion-transfer optics technology employs a revolutionary off-axis design for dramatically increasing the efficiency of ion transfer from the ion source to the MS analyzer, while at the same time actively eliminating undesirable neutral contaminants. The resulting sensitivity improvement is critical, for example, in metabolite identification where the goal is to find, identify and quantify all metabolites in a sample. Experiments like these can be performed for the first time at biologically relevant concentration levels which give the chemist a much more accurate quantitative and qualitative understanding of the molecular system of interest to better aid the drug development processes.

"When research scientists set out on a mission of discovery, they want to know everything there is to know about their analyte – what it is, how much is present, how it's been modified and even what its conformation is like. Ion mobility and the UPLC/MS(E) data-independent acquisition mode of the SYNAPT G2-S give scientists unrivalled analytical selectivity for the most confident and comprehensive characterization of complex analytes and mixtures of complex compounds, and unprecedented sensitivity to make this possible at lower concentrations than on any other high resolution mass spectrometry systems," says Alistair Wallace, Ph.D., SYNAPT Product Manager, Waters Division. "Furthermore, it complements NMR, electron microscopy, and x-ray crystallography and gives scientists a unique opportunity to selectively and accurately study the shape of molecules which are beyond the reach of these traditional techniques."

Waters SYNAPT G2-S supports Waters' exclusive High-Definition MS(E) acquisition method which comprehensively catalogs complex samples in a single analysis by separating components by ion mobility and then capturing the molecular and fragment ion data from all detectable peaks across the entire chromatographic separation, all in a single injection. The ability of ion mobility to separate isobaric/isomeric compounds from one another is the key to reaping the benefits of the sensitivity enhancements of StepWave, dramatically increasing the number of confidently identified components. The result is accurate qualitative and quantitative profiling of all of the components over a linear dynamic range of up to five orders of magnitude aided by the high resolution quantitative time-of-flight (QuanTof™) analyzer featuring an ultra-fast electron multiplier and hybrid analog-to-digital (ADC) detector electronics. The instrument's mass resolving power is over 40,000 FWHM (full width half maximum).

SYNAPT G2-S also includes additional software to provide unrivalled experimental versatility to meet a wide range of challenges:

• MS(E)data viewer for visualization, processing, and interpretation of multidimensional MS or HDMS data;
• High Definition Imaging Software for leveraging the ability of ion mobility separations to maximize selectivity and confidence in MALDI imaging experiments;
• Dedicated proteomics and biopharmaceutical software application managers that fully support HDMS(E) data processing and reporting.
• Improved ease-of-use features allowing scientists to take advantage of SYNAPT's unique Time-Aligned-Parallel fragmentation capability and the powerful Electron Transfer Dissociation (ETD) capability - providing faster, more complete and confident structural identification and characterisation of target analytes.
• Combining faster spectral acquisition rates of up to 30 spectra/sec with new embedded algorithms to optimize data-dependent analyses (DDA) to efficiently deliver the highest quality MS/MS spectra for compound identification or protein quantification by isotope labeling.

The SYNAPT G2-S also features Waters Universal Ion Source Architecture engineered to take maximum advantage of UPLC® allowing the widest range of Waters ionization sources including: electrospray (ESI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), dual ESI and APCi (ASCi), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI), atmospheric pressure gas chromatography (APGC), NanoFlow® (ESI), matrix assisted laser desorption (MALDI), atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP) and TRIZAIC UPLC®. It is also compatible with third party ionization sources including DESI (Prosalia), DART (IonSense), LDTD (Phytronix), and the TriVersanano Mate (Advion) sources.

Primary applications for the SYNAPT G2-S include proteomics, biomarker discovery, pharmaceuticals/biopharmaceuticals, lipidomics, structural elucidation, metabolomics, polymer analysis, petroleum characterization, metabolite identification and food research.

Since its introduction in 2006, SYNAPTHDMS has set a new standard in high-end MS instrumentation. To date there have been more than 150 research papers published to date based on Triwave ion mobility SYNAPT technology and more than 70 research papers on UPLC/MS(E).