BOOK OF ABSTRACTS: ELEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CZECH SOCIETY FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY 2023

Význam tématu

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become a cornerstone of modern analytical chemistry, offering unmatched sensitivity, specificity and versatility for both small molecules and biomacromolecules. The Eleventh Annual Conference of the Czech Society for Mass Spectrometry demonstrated how MS advances continue to impact trace element analysis, proteomics, structural biology and imaging, providing critical insights across environmental, clinical and industrial applications.

Cíle a přehled konference

The conference aimed to bring together specialists in organic and inorganic MS to exchange the latest methodological breakthroughs and applications. Key objectives included:

• Bridging communities of ICP-MS and organic MS users to highlight complementary capabilities.
• Demonstrating novel fragmentation techniques such as Electron Activated Dissociation.
• Showcasing quantitative and high-resolution approaches in proteomics, glycoproteomics and metabolomics.
• Exploring ion mobility, single-cell proteomics and MS imaging for spatially resolved analyses.

Použitá metodika a instrumentace

Organizers and presenters described a broad array of platforms and workflows:

• ICP-MS and ICP-MS/MS with collision/reaction cells and laser ablation for trace-element and speciation analysis.
• High-resolution Orbitrap and Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometers with advanced dissociation options (UVPD, IRMPD, SID).
• Tribrid instruments (Orbitrap Ascend, Fusion) with real-time search for multiplexed proteomics.
• Trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) on timsTOF and cyclic IMS separations for conformer resolution.
• UHPLC-QQQ and UPLC-QTOF methods for small molecule profiling, amino-acid analysis and metabolomics.
• MALDI-MS imaging coupled with nanoparticle tags and single-particle ICP-MS for spatial element and protein mapping.
• Hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) and radical labeling (FPOP, FFAP) for structural proteomics and protein–ligand interactions.

Hlavní výsledky a diskuse

Presentations highlighted several advances:

• ICP-MS/MS strategies resolved isobaric interferences in ultra-trace metal analysis and enabled metalloprotein characterization by HPLC-ICP-MS.
• Electron Activated Dissociation on a TOF platform yielded richer fragment ion sets for both peptides and small molecules.
• Orbitrap Ascend with real-time search matched label-free proteome depths with isobaric tagging by avoiding MS3 duty-cycle penalties.
• Radical labeling methods probed solvent accessibility on proteins and nucleic acids, revealing binding interfaces and conformational changes.
• Ion mobility approaches separated protomers, isomers and conformers of peptides and metabolites, enabling quantitation via multiple linear regression of mobilogram shapes.
• Single-cell proteomics achieved >4 000 protein groups per cell using TIMS-enabled sensitivity and optimized LC-MS workflows.
• MALDI and LA-ICP imaging of gold-tagged antibodies visualized spatial protein distributions in tissue and spheroid models.

Přínosy a praktické využití metody

The demonstrated techniques have broad implications:

• Environmental and clinical laboratories gain robust tools for speciation, ultratrace and imaging analyses.
• Proteomics cores can combine high speed, depth and quantitative accuracy for biomarker discovery.
• Structural biologists benefit from complementary HDX, photodissociation and ion mobility for mapping protein dynamics.
• Pharmaceutical quality control can adopt CE-MS and targeted UHPLC-MS to ensure peptide and protein integrity.

Budoucí trendy a možnosti využití

Emerging directions include:

• Integration of ion mobility with data-independent acquisition for deeper, faster quantitative proteomics.
• Advanced labels and cross-linkers enabling residue-specific interrogation of protein assemblies in vivo.
• Microdroplet MS for accelerated reaction screening and metabolite discovery.
• Single-particle and single-cell elemental and molecular imaging at subcellular resolution.
• AI-driven data analysis pipelines to harness high-dimensional MS datasets.

Závěr

The Eleventh Conference highlighted how continuous instrument innovation and creative methodologies extend the power of mass spectrometry across elemental, structural and functional domains. By uniting inorganic and organic MS communities, new hybrid approaches are poised to transform environmental monitoring, clinical diagnostics and fundamental molecular science.

Reference

• Baba T. et al. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 32, 1964–1975 (2021).
• Giles K. et al. Anal. Chem. 91, 8564–8573 (2019).
• Chavan T.S. et al. eLife 9, e53479 (2020).