MALDI mass spectrometry: an underappreciated tool in biomedical filed

At present, the Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is not widely used in the field of biomedicine. This is, mostly, due to the lack of information about the capabilities of the instruments and their advantages in certain areas, as well as a limited number of laboratories equipped with these devices.

The main areas where MALDI-TOF MS can be successfully used are: (i) proteomics (for confirmation of protein termini/modification, top-down mass spectrometry and measurements of intact mass of protein (up to 300000 Da); (ii) microorganism identification, (iii) glycoprotein and glycan analysis, (iv) molecular histology/MALDI Imaging, (v) analysis of biotherapeutics, (vi) analysis of DNA, RNA and their complexes with peptide and protein, (vii) biomarker discovery, (viii) analysis of polymers used in the preparation of medicinal products, (ix) pharmaceutical and biotech QC/QA, (x) mixture analysis, etc.

The main advantages of MALDI-TOF MS compared to most commonly used mass spectrometers are higher tolerance towards contaminants, lower sensitivity to salts/buffers, higher resistance to contamination of the device by samples, low practical detection limits, ability to detect high masses, fast speed of the analysis, relatively easy spectra interpretation, and high throughput. These characteristics make MALDI-TOF MS a powerful tool in wide areas of biological research.