Nathan Anderson

The goal of metabolite identification groups is to de-risk compounds moving into development by ensuring they have favourable metabolic profiles before clinical trials are initiated. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) is a well-established technology for this purpose, as a result of its ability to selectively and accurately distinguish drugs and their metabolites. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) can add another critical dimension of separation by improving spectral clarity and generating collision cross section (CCS) values to track metabolites across multiple analysis conditions. Modern software platforms have now evolved to solidify the value of IMS for the field of metabolite identification.