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Thermo Fisher Scientific Transforms Research and Applied Analysis with New-Generation Technologies at ASMS 2013

TMO | June 10, 2013

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, today launched three new-generation liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) instruments that redefine high-performance analysis and enable customers in research and applied markets to push the boundaries of science.

Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Fusion LC-MS with Thermo Scientific Dionex UltiMate 3000 Series UHPLC, one of many innovations announced today at ASMS 2013. (Photo: Business Wire)

The new Thermo Scientific platforms made their debut at the ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, being held in Minneapolis from June 9-13 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in booth 154.

The innovations making headlines at this year’s ASMS 2013 include:

Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Fusion “Tribrid” mass spectrometer, a new top-of-the-line research instrument that uniquely combines three Thermo Fisher mass analyzers – the industry-leading Orbitrap, quadrupole and linear ion trap – for unprecedented analytical capabilities in proteomics, lipidomics, glycoproteomics and other life sciences research.
Thermo Scientific Quantiva triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer, a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer that was built from the ground up to deliver ultimate sensitivity, speed and dynamic range for challenging quantitation experiments, such as detecting ultra-low levels of peptides for cancer research.
Thermo Scientific Endura triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer, a completely new instrument that offers exceptional quantitative value and sensitivity coupled with robustness and ease-of-use for scientists who run high-volume applied analyses, such as food and environmental testing.

“We have a strong track record of innovation in mass spectrometry, including development of the first triple quadrupole instrument and our game-changing Orbitrap platform,” said Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “We’re continuing this proud tradition by introducing a whole new class of instruments that deliver remarkable analytical power and productivity for our customers in life sciences and applied markets. This is a great example of our strategy to develop new breakthroughs for a broad set of customers by building on our industry-leading technology platforms.”

Ultimate Performance and Usability

Thermo Fisher’s new generation of mass spectrometers for qualitative and quantitative research redefine high performance by combining revolutionary depth of analysis with ease-of-use. These instruments were specifically developed to address growing customer needs to run more samples in less time, achieve ever-lower detection limits and analyze increasingly complex biological samples, such as protein-based biopharmaceuticals.

The Orbitrap Fusion mass spectrometer features novel “Tribrid” architecture with three mass analyzers, offering greater depth of analysis of complex biological samples to provide new levels of knowledge. It offers up to 450,000 resolution, which allows life sciences researchers, for example, to measure extremely low-concentration drug metabolites that could not previously be identified. In addition, the Orbitrap Fusion can enable scientists to conduct a wide range of existing experiments faster and more effectively to accelerate the discovery process.

“Our largest challenges have been sensitivity and throughput,” explained Dr. Steven Gygi, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School. “The Orbitrap Fusion instrument is revolutionary in allowing us to achieve much greater proteome-wide coverage with much greater quantitative accuracy than ever before.”

Scientists performing quantitation experiments – from proteomics and toxicology to food and environmental testing – now have a powerful new tool in the TSQ Quantiva triple quadrupole instrument. It delivers robust analytical performance with attogram (10-18 gram) sensitivity for customers who require the absolute lowest levels of detection.

To optimize around-the-clock analyses, such as forensics, pharmaceutical QA/QC, and food and environmental testing, the new TSQ Endura triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was designed to minimize maintenance requirements for exceptional uptime. Stress tests using a challenging synthetic serum sample showed no significant loss of performance after 6,000 injections – a threefold improvement in robustness over previous Thermo Fisher systems. In addition, the unique design of the instrument’s ion path minimizes contamination to reduce downtime.

Thermo Fisher also developed a new suite of software designed to make the power of these new- generation mass spectrometers accessible to a wider customer set by improving usability and increasing the speed of analysis. For the Orbitrap Fusion, new software powered by Dynamic Scan Management tools automatically adjusts scan parameters in real time to achieve faster results. It eliminates guesswork so scientists can conserve precious samples during analysis. New Method Editor software for the TSQ Quantiva is designed to allow customers to rapidly develop new methods, improving reporting and productivity.

Advancing Proteomics Workflows

As proteomics research – the study of all the proteins in a cell – looks at ever-smaller and more subtle differences between samples to unlock the secrets of cancers and other diseases, the ability to perform high-quality relative quantitation of many samples, quickly, is critical. One way the Orbitrap Fusion addresses this challenge is through tandem mass tags (TMT) that enable mass spectrometers to determine relative quantitation of proteins in multiple samples simultaneously. The Orbitrap Fusion instrument greatly increases the depth and quality of data compared with previous tools to make TMT far more useful to life science researchers.

To enable this complete TMT workflow, Thermo Fisher also introduced at ASMS the Thermo Scientific iodoTMT reagents and labeling kit for the measurement of protein and peptide cysteine modifications by multiplex quantitative mass spectrometry.

Furtherstrengthening its depth of capabilities, Thermo Fisher introduced several other new reagents:

Thermo Scientific Pierce Trypsin Protease, MS Grade for protein digestion.
Thermo Scientific Pierce Mass Spec Sample Prep Kit for Cultured Cells, an easy-to-use comprehensive kit for preparing clean peptide mixtures.
Thermo Scientific Pierce Abundant Protein Depletion Products, spin columns for removing albumen and antibody components from human plasma for mass spec or electrophoresis analysis.
Thermo Scientific Pierce Reserpine Standard for LC-MS.

To see the entire Thermo Fisher portfolio of new mass spectrometry instruments, software and consumables, visit Thermo Scientific booth 154 or online at www.thermoscientific.com/asms or www.thermofisher.com/news.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is the world leader in serving science. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. With revenues of $13 billion, we have 39,000 employees and serve customers within pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions and government agencies, as well as in environmental and process control industries. We create value for our key stakeholders through three premier brands, Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific and Unity™ Lab Services, which offer a unique combination of innovative technologies, convenient purchasing options and a single solution for laboratory operations management. Our products and services help our customers solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Visit http://www.thermofisher.com.