Clinical Applications of Mass Spectrometry Methods and Protocols

Development of direct ionization methods for mass spectrometry – biomedical applications

Understanding the role of immunoaffinity-based mass spectrometry methods for clinical applications.

Both ligand binding assays (LBA) and mass spectrometry (MS) methods are widely used in routine clinical analysis. In recent years, an interesting trend has emerged which blends these 2 techniques to combine the selectivity of immunoaffinity (IA) extraction with the specificity of MS detection (IA-MS). The article by Laha and coworkers in the current issue of Clinical Chemistry, entitled “Charac...

Developing mass spectrometry towards applications in clinical proteomics

Proteome versus proteins Each organism contains a single genome in virtually all its cells and thus the difference between the numerous cell types within the same organisms are attributed mainly to genetic imprinting, epigenetics, transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes. Thus studying all the protein molecules present in the living system (termed proteomics) at any given time and phy...

Mass Spectrometry Applications for Toxicology

Toxicology is a multidisciplinary study of poisons, aimed to correlate the quantitative and qualitative relationships between poisons and their physiological and behavioural effects in living systems. Other key aspects of toxicology focus on elucidation of the mechanisms of action of poisons and development of remedies and treatment plans for associated toxic effects. In these endeavours, Mass ...

Accelerator mass spectrometry and its applications

The state of the art in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is reviewed. The review is divided in two parts. The first covers the general methodology, followed by its specific elaborations for the commonly measured long-lived isotopes such as 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl and 129I, as well as other isotopes with emerging applications. The second part considers the very wide spectrum of applications tha...