Fundamentals and applications of Maldi-Tof MS

MALDI was developed for the ionisation of relatively large polypeptides and proteins but its application has widened to incorporate glycoproteins, oligonucleotides and complex carbohydrates. A great advantage of MALDI TOF MS is that the process of soft-ionisation causes little or no fragmentation of analytes, allowing the molecular ions of analytes to be identified, even within mixtures. MALDI TOF MS analysis is sensitive and very rapid as once the sample has been mixed with a 'matrix' on a MALDI target, a spectrum can be generated within seconds. Hence, the majority of protein and oligonucleotide analysis in the context of high throughput proteomics and genomics is carried out by MALDI TOF mass spectrometry.