Key Points:
- Thermo Fisher Scientific unveiled two new mass spectrometers, the Orbitrap Astral Zoom and Orbitrap Excedion Pro, designed to enhance research capabilities in proteomics, biopharmaceutical development, and complex disease biology.
- The company emphasized its $1.3 billion annual investment in R&D, focusing on building integrated workflows and software solutions like Chromeleon to support diverse scientific applications.
- Multi-omics remains a central focus for Thermo Fisher, with efforts to provide technologies that enable comprehensive analysis across proteomics, genomics, and metabolomics, addressing growing demands in precision medicine and rare disease research.
- Thermo Fisher expanded its proteomics portfolio through the 2023 acquisition of Olink, adding affinity-based proteomics technology to complement its mass spectrometry offerings and strengthen its position in biomarker discovery and precision diagnostics.
At Monday’s Thermo Fisher Scientific’s press event during the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, the company introduced two new mass spectrometers—the Orbitrap Astral Zoom and the Orbitrap Excedion Pro—designed to advance research in proteomics, biopharmaceutical development, and complex disease biology. According to the company, the instruments offer improvements in analytical speed, resolution, and throughput, targeting areas where deeper insights into biological data are increasingly essential, particularly in studies of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
Their announcement comes at a time when the life sciences sector is under growing pressure to produce more comprehensive and reproducible data from increasingly intricate biological systems. In that context, Thermo Fisher’s new instruments reflect a broader industry shift toward more automated, high-throughput platforms capable of meeting the demands of modern proteomics, genomics, and drug development workflows.
The Astral Zoom, an update to a previous model, offers faster scan speeds and expanded multiplexing for proteomics applications. Meanwhile, the Excedion Pro, geared toward biologics and monoclonal antibody analysis, integrates Orbitrap technology with new fragmentation techniques to better characterize structurally complex molecules.
Iain Mylchreest, vice president of R&D for Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, emphasized that Thermo Fisher’s $1.3 billion annual investment in R&D is central to staying ahead in a competitive and fast-evolving landscape.
“We have to develop workflows to meet these new application challenges,” he said, noting that success today depends not just on hardware, but on building complete, end-to-end systems that meet the diverse needs of scientific users across sectors—from clinical diagnostics to industrial research.
As part of that workflow-oriented strategy, Thermo Fisher is also investing heavily in software. Mylchreest highlighted the company’s Chromeleon platform, which enables centralized control of more than 500 chromatography instruments—including third-party systems—as well as Thermo Scientific’s full suite of single, triple quadrupole, and high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) spectrometers. In an era of increasingly integrated and automated labs, the ability to manage and coordinate complex instrument fleets through unified software systems has become critical.
“We have a centralized data store,” Mylchreest said. “We’re working on format, storage, and AI to process some of the data.”
Doubling Down on Omics
That push toward integration is especially important in the expanding field of multi-omics, which has become a major focus for Thermo Fisher. Bradley Hart, senior director of Analytical Sciences and LS-MS Marketing, underscored the company's commitment to supporting scientists engaged in complex analyses across proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, and other interconnected disciplines.
“Our orbitraps really address all of these issues that pharma faces with critical quality attributes of products,” Hart said. “It’s going to be a powerful instrument for biopharma.”
He added that the goal is to equip researchers with tools that can handle the growing volume and complexity of multi-omics data—ultimately enabling more comprehensive biological insights. Research in these areas is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, driven by their growing importance in precision medicine, rare disease research, and clinical diagnostics. As scientists work to decode the molecular mechanisms underlying human health and disease, omics-based approaches are becoming indispensable for identifying biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and diagnostic tools—especially for conditions that have historically lacked clear molecular pathways or adequate treatments.
Thermo Fisher also used its ASMS presence to spotlight its proteomics collaboration with Olink, a company known for its high-specificity, affinity-based proteomics technology. In 2023, Thermo Fisher acquired Olink in a deal valued at approximately $3.1 billion, expanding its reach in the proteomics space and strengthening its position in precision medicine and biomarker discovery.
“Now we have a comprehensive proteomics portfolio,” Hart said. “Olink has very targeted assays and so do we.”
