ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an emerging biomedical analytic technique of mass spectrometry. This chapter first delineate the physics principles governing mass spectrometry. The three working steps of mass spectrometry are ionization of molecule, sorting of ionized molecules according to their mass to charge ratios (m/z), and detecting ionized molecules’ intensity (quantification). The ability of mass spectrometry in identifying different molecules is due to the physical fact that each molecule has a unique “finger print” in its m/z. The different types of mass spectrometers are described so the readers can get a more comprehensive knowledge of this technique. This chapter next discussed the usefulness of mass spectrometry in analyzing proteomic studies. Finally, some potential clinical applications of mass spectrometry are delineated. One application is early disease detection, such as developing biomarkers to detect early ovarian and pancreatic cancers, since early detection would be truly life-saving. Another application of mass spectrometry is for intra-operative cancer margin detection, in which a hand-held mass spectrometry device has been reported with ability to detect the presence of cancer in living clinical sample within 10 sec of time without tissue injury. This will significantly improve surgeon’s ability to determine the operating margin at the time of surgery.
