Mass spectrometer

Description

The Francis Crick Institute ('The Crick) is a biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding the scientific mechanisms of living things. It works to find new ways to treat, diagnose, and prevent illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections and neurodegenerative diseases. The Francis Crick Institute Metabolomics Science Technology Platform (STP) seeks to purchase a high resolution mass spectrometer with liquid chromatography front end (LC-MS) for metabolomics research. The instrument will be used for metabolite profiling and metabolite identification. The instrument must match the capabilities and specifications of the current instrumentation both within the Metabolomics STP and being used by a newly-recruited metabolism research group, for continuity of data quality standards. The instrument must be able to at least provide the following performance: Mass Spectrometer (MS) performance: — The MS must be of a benchtop footprint and no larger than 1 m3 — The MS must be capable of real-time data acquisition and data processing, enabling a high spectrum repetition rate — The MS must consist of a quadrupole mass filter capable of providing variable and stepless precursor isolation width selection from 0.4 Da to 2450 Da — The MS must have a detector capable of delivering high resolution and accurate masses at all modes of operation — The MS must have a multipole collision cell for Higher Energy Collision Dissociation (HCD) — The MS must have Full Scan, Full Scan MS/MS, Selected Ion Monitoring, Selected/Multiple Reaction Monitoring, and an ‘All Ion’ Fragmentation mode. — Sensitivity: Full MS: 500 fg Buspirone (or equivalent standard) on column yields S/N 100:1 or better; SIM: 30 fg Buspirone (or equivalent standard) on column yields S/N 100:1 or better — Isolation: The instrument must be able to isolate ions stepless between: o 0.4 Da and full mass range (between m/z 50 and m/z 400) o 0.7 Da and full mass range (between m/z 400 and m/z 700) o 1 Da and full mass range (between m/z 700 and m/z 1000) o 2 Da and full mass range (between m/z 1000 and m/z 2000) o 4 Da and full mass range (between m/z 2000 and 2500) — Mass resolution: The instrument must have a maximum resolution of at least 140,000 (FWHM) at m/z 200 for all scan modes and both polarities (preferably 280,000) — Scan speed: highest scan speed of 12 scans per second (R=17,500 at m/z 200) in Full Scan or SIM mode. Scan speed for MS/MS is up to 10 MS/MS scans per sec at high resolution (R=17,500 at m/z 200) in targeted or data dependent mode — Mass accuracy: < 1 ppm RMS — with internal calibration and < 3 ppm RMS — with external calibration over 24 h and without any kind of mass recalibration — Dynamic Range: > 5000:1 within one spectrum (single transient acquisition) — Mass Range: The mass spectrometer must operate in the mass range of 50 — 6000 Da. The scan range must be at least: last mass = 15 x first mass — Polarity switching: The mass spectrometer must be capable of fast polarity switching acquiring one spectrum in positive and one in negative ionization mode in one second at a resolution of 35,000 (@ m/z 200). In polarity switching mode the instrument must perform within the defined mass accuracy specifications above — The MS must automatically control ion injection time for optimised ion currents across a chromatographic peak. It must be able to temporarily exclude an ion, while allowing MS/MS spectra acquisition of minor abundant precursors and the capability to automatically compensate for the mass dependent energy deposition and provide instrument-to-instrument reproducibility — The MS must be able to be connected to an appropriate microflow LC system. — The MS must have a suitable probe (heated electrospray ionisation or atmospheric pressure ionisation) which must operate at flow rates from 1 μl/min to 1 ml/min using 100 % water without splitting Liquid chromatography (LC) specifications: — The LC must be able an ultrahigh performance system (UHPLC) — The LC binary pump must have a flow range of at least 0.001 — 5 mL/min, in 1 μL/min increments — The LC binary pump must have a pressure range of at least 2–103 MPa (20–1034 bar, 290–15,000 psi) below 5 mL/min — The LC column compartment must have a pressure range of at least 5–151 MPa (50–1517 bar, 700–22,000 psi).