Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches Tribrid LC-MS

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. introduced the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) system, which combines three mass analyzers –quadrupole, Orbitrap and linear ion trap – in a single Tribrid architecture.

A quadrupole analyzer is used for precursor selection at isolation widths down to 0.4 amu for excellent sensitivity and selectivity. An ultra-high-field Orbitrap offers resolution in excess of 450,000 and scan rates up to 15 Hz. An ion routing multipole followed by dual-pressure linear ion trap provides MSn HCD, CID, and ETD fragmentations and fast, sensitive mass analysis with scan rates of up to 20 Hz. Synchronous precursor selection enhances the instrument’s signal-to-noise ratio.

This Tribrid configuration enables users to positively identify larger numbers of low-abundance proteins faster than previously possible with existing commercial instruments. The architecture enables simultaneous precursor isolation, fragmentation, and data acquisition in both the Orbitrap and linear ion trap mass analyzers. More data can be collected compared to existing instruments, expanding the range of possible experiments.

Software on the Orbitrap Fusion LC-MS provides Dynamic Scan Management (DSM), a capability that automatically adjusts scan parameters as experiments are running. The system features a drag and drop method editor. Other software features include Thermo Scientific Freestyle software, a new data visualization tool that also facilitates rapid method development and data quality assessment; Thermo Scientific Proteome Discoverer, a comprehensive software application for protein identification; Thermo Scientific Compound Discoverer software, used to perform small molecule structural identification in a wide range of applications; Thermo Scientific SIEVE software for differential quantitative analysis of proteomic and small molecule samples; and, mzCloud software, a novel mass spectral database that supports identification and structural elucidation of unknowns.