Equipment Roundup: New Chromatography and Spectrometry Instruments from Shimadzu, Bruker

In this equipment roundup, the editors of LCGC International highlight the newest products from instrument manufacturers around the world.

Shimadzu Updates LCMS RX Series

In late May, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments announced the release of the LCMS RX series of triple quadrupole mass spectrometry instruments (1), which are supported by integrated hardware and software technologies to ensure reliable and robust results at lower operating costs.

The company also introduced a suite of new technologies with the RX series including the CoreSpray, which enhances reliability by increasing gas flow and improving nebulizer coaxiality. This improves the heat distribution of the ionization source, ensuring unparalleled sample ionization, significantly enhancing the reliability of analytical data. The IonFocus electrode, once exclusive to the LCMS-8060NX, is now a standard feature across all RX models. It removes matrix contaminants, resulting in lower noise levels, improved data quality and reduced maintenance needs.

Shimadzu’s LCMS includes enhanced software capabilities to autonomously monitor the system, reducing the need for manual intervention. Furthermore, the performance concierge proactively evaluates system performance with a standard solution, troubleshoots problems and notifies operators of maintenance needs, effectively minimizing instrument downtime.

The LCMS RX series also includes an ecology mode function that automatically checks system status and shuts the instrument down after sample queues are completed. This reduction in power consumption minimizes the running cost of the laboratory and consumes less resources.

The RX series consists of the following models:

1. The LCMS-8045RX system is ideal for routine analysis. Advanced RX technologies provide improved stability, ease of use and lower operating costs.
2. The LCMS-8050RX builds on the performance success of Shimadzu’s LCMS-8050 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer featuring increased robustness and reliability.

Bruker Launches New MALDI-TOF/TOF System

At the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference in Anaheim, California, Bruker Corporation announced the launch of a novel, high-performance matrix-assisted laser desorption–ionization-tandem time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) system, the neofleX Imaging Profiler for mass spectrometry-based tissue imaging (2). It enables facile OME-TIFF file output via the new SCiLS Scope software. The neofleXMALDI-TOF/TOF imaging mass spectrometry (MSI) system now conveniently fits on a benchtop.

This instrument comes standard with Bruker’s proprietary 10 kHz smartbeam3D laser for true pixel fidelity and with enhanced imaging detectors designed for longitudinal robustness, stability, and reproducibility in linear and reflector modes. neofleX is also available as a TOF/TOF configuration that features a reimagined fragmentation module for significantly improved TOF/TOF sensitivity, speed, and sequence coverage.

In addition to MALDI HiPLEX-IHC MSI immunohistochemistry, neofleX is also compatible with the MALDI-ISH (in situ hybridization) method announced at ASMS 2024 by AmberGen, Inc. MALDI-ISH multiplexes imaging of up to 12 oligomers of interest for multiomic spatial tissue research in neuroscience, infectious disease, and oncology.

According to the manufacturer, the neofleX excels at providing more insight per pixel through multiomic spatial biology data from tissue sections that can positively correlate targeted proteins with glycans, metabolites, lipids, endogenous peptides, xenobiotics, and now RNA/DNA. This additional multiomics context provides important adjacency information about cellular states, function, structure, and protein activity for a range of research areas, such as oncology and neurology.

References

(1) Press Release, May 29, 2024. https://www.ssi.shimadzu.com/news/2024-05-29-shimadzu-releases-lcms-rx-triple-quad-series.html (accessed 2024-06-11).

(2) “Bruker Launches Transformative neofleX MALDI-TOF System for Spatial Biology Mass Spec Imaging (MSI) Applications” Bruker press release, June 3, 2024. https://www.bruker.com/en/news-and-events/news/2024/bruker-launches-transformative-neoflex-maldi-tof-system-for-spatial-biology-mass-spec-imaging-applications.html (accessed 2024-06-11)