5. KONFERENCE ČESKÉ SPOLEČNOSTI PRO HMOTNOSTNÍ SPEKTROMETRII - Sborník abstraktů

Significance of the topic

Mass spectrometry remains at the forefront of analytical chemistry, underpinning advances in proteomics, metabolomics, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and pharmaceutical research. Rapid developments in ion sources, mass analyzers and hyphenated techniques have significantly enhanced sensitivity, selectivity and throughput, enabling novel applications from molecular imaging to real-time gas analysis.

Objectives and overview

The proceedings summarize the 5th Conference of the Czech Society for Mass Spectrometry held in April 2016 in České Budějovice. Its goals were to bring together academic, industrial and instrument-vendor experts to present recent innovations, share practical experiences and discuss emerging challenges across fields such as ion chemistry, instrumentation, and applied mass spectrometry.

Methodology and instrumentation

Contributions covered a broad spectrum of approaches:

• New ion sources: surface acoustic wave nebulization (SAWN), desorption nanoelectrospray (nanoDESI), rapid evaporative ionization (REIMS)
• Ambient ionization: DESI, DART, substrate-assisted laser desorption (SALD)
• Hyphenated techniques: LC-MS/MS (triple quadrupole, QTOF, Orbitrap), GC-MS/MS, GC×GC-TOF
• High-resolution and high-throughput instruments: rapifleX MALDI-TOF/TOF imaging, FT-ICR, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS)
• Elemental and molecular imaging: LA-ICP-MS for metals, MALDI and DESI imaging for lipids and metabolites
• Microfluidic and digital integration: on-chip sample preparation, microgradient peptide separations

Main results and discussion

Key research findings highlighted included:

• Fundamental studies of energy-resolved collision-induced dissociation and spectral similarity metrics across instrument platforms
• Development of novel ambient and chip-based ionization sources with lower internal energy deposition for peptides and proteins
• High-resolution helium-tagging IR/vis spectroscopy of gas-phase ions at cryogenic temperatures
• Soft ionization workflows for real-time quantification of volatile biomarkers (VOCs) in environmental and clinical breath analysis
• Applications of ion mobility for improved separation of isobaric and isomeric species in food and metabolomics
• Advanced bioimaging combining LA-ICP and organic MSI for brain tumors, fungal infections and 3D cell cultures
• Quantitative platforms for targeted and untargeted metabolomics in clinical, environmental and food matrices
• Proteomic mapping of disease states, drug responses and tissue-specific marker localization

Benefits and practical applications

The methods presented offer tangible advantages:

• Enhanced speed and throughput, with full MSI datasets acquired in hours
• Improved selectivity and sensitivity through novel ion chemistry and ion mobility
• Label-free quantification for high-throughput drug screening and metabolite profiling
• On-site and real-time monitoring of pollutants, biomarkers and therapeutic compounds
• Spatially resolved molecular information in tissues and microbial colonies

Future trends and prospects

Emerging directions discussed at the conference include:

• Further miniaturization and integration of ion sources with microfluidics
• Expanding digital microfluidics for on-chip sample multiplexing
• Combining machine learning with advanced spectral libraries for automated compound identification
• Development of portable mass spectrometers for field deployable analysis
• Continued growth of multimodal imaging platforms merging MALDI, DESI, SIMS and LA-ICP

Conclusion

The 5th Conference of the Czech Society for Mass Spectrometry provided a comprehensive snapshot of current innovations, highlighting significant progress in ionization, separation and detection technologies. The event fostered interdisciplinary exchange and set the stage for collaborative efforts to address complex analytical challenges.

References

All original contributions provide bibliographic citations to the primary literature, with detailed references listed in the individual abstracts.