Development and application of differential mobility: mass spectrometry as a rapid analytical platform.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20004984

One of the key application areas in the field of mass spectrometry is the analysis of drugs, metabolites, endogenous/ exogenous compounds in matrices of varying complexeties. Advances in liquid chromatography including sample clean-up methods (offline/ online) have greatly facilitated the analysis of these compounds, even bringing down the analysis time to a few minutes. However, method development for targeting analytes in complex matrices is often times challenging and sometime requires extensive sample clean-up steps prior to lengthy chromatography times which can affect the throughput of the analytical method. Another challenge that could arise in the chromatographic method development process is the presence of interferences (isomeric or isobaric) during the mass analysis. Hence, an analytical method eliminating or requiring minimal sample preparation steps while maintaining selectivity and providing good throughput for these analyses can be of great importance. Use of DMS has been mostly in conjunction with liquid chromatography; however, in recent years DMS is being increasingly applied to different kinds of matrices as a stand-alone technology for ion separation/ filtration prior to mass analysis. Recent advances in application of the DMS-MS platform to biologically relevant matrices, including contributions to understanding and usage of gas phase interactions is presented in this thesis.