The protein ID autobahn - Automated nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry

Two things drive biopharmaceutical researchers: the need for new, more effective pharmaceuticals and the demand to develop those drugs faster. After decades of "shotgun" approaches to testing new compounds, researchers have turned their focus to elucidating protein functions and pathways to understand the underlying causes of health and disease. The goal is to identify promising drug targets and to develop novel therapeutics. Historically mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics has been limited by a trade-off between throughput and information content. High sensitivity often comes at the cost of throughput. Ideally, researchers would choose the efficiency of both, but analytical techniques to date have failed to achieve this balance for proteomics. Researchers often list sample introduction as a bottleneck to high-throughput protein analysis. MS has become the technology for protein identification and characterization. Although MS can analyze any biological sample, that sample must first be converted to gas-phase ions. Electrospray ionization (ESI) is a technique that allows direct analysis of samples in solution by generating highly charged droplets of spray that evaporate to form gas-phase ions.