2. KONFERENCE ČESKÉ SPOLEČNOSTI PRO HMOTNOSTNÍ SPEKTROMETRII - Sborník abstraktů

Importance of the topic

The 2nd Conference of the Czech Society for Mass Spectrometry highlighted the critical role of mass spectrometric methods across chemistry, biology, environmental science and clinical diagnostics. Advances in soft ionization, high-resolution analyzers and hyphenated techniques enable sensitive, selective, and non-invasive analyses in research and industrial quality control.

Objectives and overview of the conference

Held 17–19 October 2012 in Hradec Králové, the conference brought together researchers from academia and industry. Sessions addressed fundamental ion chemistry, food and environmental applications, organic analysis, biological and clinical MS, metabolomics, and future instrument development. Several vendor-led workshops and poster sessions promoted technology transfer.

Methods and instrumentation used

The meeting showcased a broad array of techniques:

• ESI-MS/MS, MALDI-TOF/TOF and SALDI-MS with nanoparticles
• GC-MS and GC-QTOF for volatile and pesticide analysis
• UPLC-QTOF and LC-MS/MS (triple quadrupole, QTRAP) for small molecules, antibiotics, and lipids
• HILIC and 2D LC workflows for comprehensive lipid and glycopeptide profiling
• SIFT-MS and SIFT-CD for real-time breath analysis
• Hydrogen/deuterium exchange and chemical cross-linking for protein structural studies
• Ion mobility spectrometry for enhanced peak capacity and isomer separation
• Ambient ionization (DESI, DAPPI) and droplet microfluidics coupled to MS for direct surface and single-droplet analysis
• ICP-MS and ICP-QQQ for trace element and metalloprotein analysis

Main results and discussion

Fundamental advances included polyatomic ion trapping technologies, mechanistic insights into peptide radical and carbene rearrangements, and diazo chemistry in ion traps. Novel interfaces were reported for coupling droplet microfluidics and microgradient LC to MS, dramatically improving throughput and quantification. Innovative workflows in metabolomics and newborn screening demonstrated untargeted profiling by high-resolution MS and LC-MS/MS. Breath analysis by SIFT-MS revealed volatile biomarkers for inflammatory and infectious diseases. Structural biologists presented HDX-MS and cross-link mapping of membrane proteins and lectins, informing drug target validation. Environmentally relevant studies addressed PCB degradation products and metal–ligand interactions in soil and biological samples.

Benefits and practical applications of the methods

These methods enable early disease biomarker discovery, rapid quality control of food and pharmaceuticals, high-confidence structural characterization of proteins, and real-time environmental monitoring. Improved sensitivity and miniaturization reduce sample consumption and speed up routine and high-throughput workflows.

Future trends and potential applications

Emerging trends include the integration of differential ion mobility devices, compact high-resolution instruments, lab-on-a-chip sample handling, and ultrafast imaging mass spectrometry. Continued development of ambient and single-cell MS will open new frontiers in cellular metabolomics, clinical diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Conclusion

The 2012 Czech MS conference underscored nationwide collaboration and international partnerships in advancing mass spectrometric science. The combination of innovative sample-handling, cutting-edge ionization sources, and high-performance analyzers promises to accelerate discoveries across multiple disciplines.

References

Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of the Czech Society for Mass Spectrometry, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, 17–19 October 2012.