Researchers 3D print key components for a point-of-care mass spectrometer

The low-cost hardware outperforms state-of-the-art versions and could someday enable an affordable, in-home device for health monitoring

09-Apr-2024 - Mass spectrometry, a technique that can precisely identify the chemical components of a sample, could be used to monitor the health of people who suffer from chronic illnesses. For instance, a mass spectrometer can measure hormone levels in the blood of someone with hypothyroidism. But mass ...

A sugar analysis could reveal different types of cancer

In the future, a little saliva may be enough to detect an incipient cancer

15-Dec-2023 - Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed an effective way to interpret the changes in sugar molecules that occur in cancer cells. Glycans are a type of sugar molecule structures that is linked to the proteins in our cells. The structure of the glycan determines the function of ...

Coronavirus: Researchers develop new rapid and reliable detection method

22-Aug-2023 - Commercially available mass spectrometers can reliably detect the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In the journal "Clinical proteomics" researchers from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) present a new method which employs equipment that is already being used in hospitals and laboratories ...

Doping by athletes could become tougher to hide with new detection method

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry to detect known dopants and newly created illicit steroids not yet known

12-Apr-2021 - As the world awaits the upcoming Olympic games, a new method for detecting doping compounds in urine samples could level the playing field for those trying to keep athletics clean. Scientists report an approach using ion mobility-mass spectrometry to help regulatory agencies detect existing ...

New ion trap to create the world's most accurate mass spectrometer

Higher accuracy for biological samples and complex mixtures

01-Feb-2021 - Mass spectrometers are widely used to analyze highly complex chemical and biological mixtures. Skoltech scientists have developed a new version of a mass spectrometer that uses rotation frequencies of ionized molecules in strong magnetic fields to measure masses with higher accuracy (FT ICR). The ...

A massive advance in spectrometry

Study results may lead to more accurate medical, biological, and chemical tests

21-Jan-2021 - Mass spectrometers (MS) have become essential tools in chemistry and biology laboratories. The ability to quickly identify the chemical components in a sample allows them to take part in a diverse array of experiments, including radiocarbon dating, protein analysis, and monitoring drug ...

'Corrective glass' for mass spectrometry imaging

Visualizing the distribution of chemical substances on non-flat samples

10-Feb-2017 - The chemical analysis of biological tissues with three-dimensional shapes has been a major problem so far. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now improved mass spectrometry imaging in such a way that the distribution of molecules can also be ...

Nanotube coating helps shrink mass spectrometers

27-Mar-2014 - Nanotechnology is advancing tools likened to Star Trek's "tricorder" that perform on-the-spot chemical analysis for a range of applications including medical testing, explosives detection and food safety. Researchers found that when paper used to collect a sample was coated with carbon nanotubes, ...

Stitch up photosynthetic megacomplex

Scientists able to study a photosynthetic complex -- arguably the most important bit of organic chemistry on the planet -- in its complete functioning state

02-Dec-2013 - When sunlight strikes a photosynthesizing organism, energy flashes between proteins just beneath its surface until it is trapped as separated electric charges. Improbable as it may seem these tiny hits of energy eventually power the growth and movement of all plants and animals. They are ...

Proteome atlas for the tuberculosis pathogen

17-May-2013 - Photographers know the problem all too well: with the naked eye, you can see which branch a bird is sitting on, but spotting the bird in the blur of branches through the telephoto lens for high-magnification images requires considerable skill. It is a similar story for researchers who are looking ...