Abstract

Advanced Techniques in Mass Spectrometry

Juergen Schaefer, Lab Head, Sanofi

MS is the base for platform technologies playing a huge role in all areas of the pharmaceutical discovery and development process. Mass spectrometry is a technique in analytical chemistry which helps to identify the kind of species present in a sample by measuring their mass to charge ratio. In addition the respective amounts can be determined from the abundance of their gas phase ions. The development of new MS ionization techniques like ESI and MALDI enabled researchers to analyze for the first time all kinds of biopolymers. The need for highest sensitivity in Proteomics in gel based and gel free workflows was a key driver for the development of new instrumentation. New quantitation methods were developed enabling peptide and protein profiling of human samples in order to detect biological variations. Isotopic labeling is used for MS based quantitation. Tandem Mass Tag, for example, allows multiplexing of a number of up to ten different samples in one run. Mass spectrometry plays a big role during drug development in chemical manufacturing control (CMC). The deep characterization of the drug substance and the identification of impurities are essential for the quality of the marketed drug product. Following a common trend from small molecules to Biopharmaceuticals like antibodies a number of examples from the pharma development MS lab will be shown to underline the challenges and the need for advanced mass spectrometric techniques for the development of new medicines.