Title:
New Tools for Rapid Mass Spectrometric Screening
New Tools for Rapid Mass Spectrometric Screening
Author(s)
Zambrzycki, Stephen C.
Advisor(s)
Fernández, Facundo M.
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Abstract
The development of new rapid screening tools and the assessment of current technologies helps explore new realms of chemistry and ensure the quality of chemical products. Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical tool that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of ionized analytes. Two new ambient plasma ionization tools were developed to rapidly ionize samples for mass spectrometry. Portable and high-throughput mass spectrometry was also evaluated for its performance in pharmaceutical and cellular therapy quality screening.
In Part 1 of this thesis, new tools were developed for Vacuum-assisted Plasma Ionization (VaPI). First, VaPI was built for the Waters Synapt G2S, an ion mobility mass spectrometer. Then, an aerosolizer and a scanning mobility particle size analyzer was coupled to the VaPI source to create Aero-VaPI. Simultaneous acquisition of the aerosol diameter, ion mobility, and mass-to-charge with Aero-VaPI illustrates the breadth of information that can be acquired in real time for simulated pre-biotic aerosol chemistries. A pyrolysis device was also built for VaPI to rapidly screen and characterize pyrolyzed polymers such as nylons. The combination of measurements in pyrolysis temperature, ion mobility, and mass-to-charge show how new potential molecular structures of pyrolyzed nylons were discovered.
In Part 2 of this thesis, portable mass spectrometry was evaluated alongside 11 other portable tools for the rapid screening of small molecule pharmaceuticals. The pros and cons of each device were noted. The Waters QDa mass spectrometer had the highest sensitivities in the study, but it was not deemed suitable for field testing due to its resource requirements and mechanical complexity. Finally, a workflow was developed for matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to rapidly assess the quality of cellular therapies. Preliminary data was acquired to demonstrate the speed and automation of the MALDI and data processing workflow for cellular therapy quality screening.
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Date Issued
2021-07-28
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Text
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Dissertation