Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry: Technological Advances and Emerging Applications

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Maykel Hernández-Mesa

University of Granada, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Analytical Chemistry

Dr Maykel Hernández-Mesa obtained his PhD in Chemistry in the laboratory of Prof. Ana María García-Campaña at the University of Granada (Spain) in 2016 (PhD Extraordinary Award in Sciences-UGR). He then joined the group of Prof. Bruno Le Bizec (LABERCA-ONIRIS; France) as a postdoctoral researcher to evaluate the potential of ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) for steroidomics in the context of food safety. In this framework, he has coordinated and executed an interlaboratory study [LABERCA, BIA-INRAE (Nantes, France), Waters Corporation (Manchester, United Kingdom), ‘Université de Genève’ (Switzerland)] for the implementation of the collision cross section (CCS) as an identification parameter in IM-MS analysis for food safety purposes. In 2018, he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF) at LABERCA for applying metabolomics approaches to the risk assessment of bisphenol A and polychlorinated biphenyls. He has recently rejoined the group of Prof. García-Campaña, where he is the principal investigator of the ‘+METABO’ project, focused on the application of less conventional analytical techniques in metabolomics [i.e. IM-MS, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS), or supercritical fluid chromatography-mass spectrometry (SFC-MS)] to address dietary chemical exposures risks to consumers. Dr Maykel Hernández-Mesa has won several awards for his scientific research, including the AGRO New Investigator Award in 2017 from the American Chemistry Society (Agrochemical Division Section).

Collection Overview

In recent years, interest in ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has grown exponentially as a result of its coupling with mass spectrometry (MS) and the subsequent commercialization of IM-MS platforms. Consequently, the application of this analytical technique is currently beyond the traditional IMS-based methods applied to detect chemical warfare agents, explosives, or drugs in airports or postal facilities. Nowadays, IM-MS is applied to the structural characterization of biomolecules as well as in proteomics, metabolomics, and petroleomics studies, among others.

The integration of IMS into traditional liquid chromatography (LC)-MS workflows provides a third separation dimension. It contributes to the efficient separation of isobars and isomers that co-elute in the chromatographic dimension and cannot be distinguished by MS. In addition, IMS provides complementary analytical information to the retention indexes and mass spectra of compounds, specifically, the so-called collision cross-section (CCS). This new information improves compound identification, significantly impacting non-targeted analytical approaches that are increasingly applied in fields as diverse as exposomics or food analysis. Technological advances in IM-MS platforms are also the main reasons for their increasingly widespread implementation, highlighting the great improvement in terms of resolution in the ion mobility cell.

Therefore, this Methods Collection aims to highlight various methods or techniques pertaining to ion mobility-mass spectrometry and their emerging applications in various fields.