Collaboration to explore FAIMS with TOF-MS

Owlstone Nanotech and Agilent Technologies have announced a phase one agreement to develop Owlstone's field-asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) filter as a front-end separation module for Agilent's Accurate Mass time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MS).

The goal of the collaboration is to determine how the systems can work together to enable identification of previously unresolved analytes. The collaboration will also explore how FAIMS can speed up liquid chromatographic separations, saving valuable analysis time.

"The scanning speed of the Owlstone microscale FAIMS device now makes it feasible to acquire ion mobility spectra from LC–MS separations in real time," said John Fjeldsted, Agilent LC–MS research and development director.

Commenting on the collaboration, Bret Bader, Owlstone CEO said, "The collaboration with Agilent gives us the opportunity to integrate our technology onto sensitive mass spectrometers that are ideal for demonstrating the benefits of our FAIMS device."

"In particular," said Fjeldsted, "our TOF and QTOF systems with Jet Stream technology are suited for coupling to high-speed ion mobility separations by virtue of high spectral acquisition rates and an analyte desolvation design."

More information about Agilent is available on-line at www.agilent.com
More about Owlstone is on-line at www.owlstonenanotech.com