[Seminar] Identification, Confirmation and Authentication Strategies by High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Techniques

Seminar

Title: Identification, Confirmation and Authentication Strategies by High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Techniques

Speaker:  Oscar Núñez and Encarnación Moyano

Affiliation: department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona

Host: Cristina Silva Pereira, Applied and Environmental Mycology Lab

Abstract:

Today, high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is becoming a powerful technique for the identification and confirmation of target and non-target compounds in a great variety of matrices. The high resolving power attainable with time-of-flight mass analyzers and especially with Orbitrap instruments, the accurate mass measurements obtained with this kind of MS analyzers, and the availability of multiple searching engines such as mass spectra libraries are important tools to achieve identification of suspected compounds. However, automation when dealing with this kind of tools could be a problem and the analyst work is necessary for the interpretation of MS data to achieve a correct identification and confirmation of known and unknown contaminants. In this presentation, we will describe some strategies used in our research group to achieve identification, confirmation and authentication when dealing with High Resolution Mass Spectrometry techniques.
The second part of the lecture will focus on novel ambient ionization techniques, such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), which are becoming very popular for the direct analysis of a great variety of matrices without any sample treatment.
 

Short Biographies:

Oscar Núñez is a Serra Húnter Professor at the department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona, working in the Group of Chromatography, Capillary Electrophoresis and Mass Spectrometry. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemisty at the same University in 2004 working in the analysis of quaternary ammonium herbicides under the supervision of Professor M.T. Galceran and Dr. E. Moyano. He was a visiting researcher at Himeji Institute of Technology (Hyogo University, Kamigori, Japan) in 2001 for half a year where he worked with Professor Shigeru Terabe, father of Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary Chromatography. He did a postdoctoral stay of two years, also in Japan, at Kyoto Institute of Technology (Kyoto) from 2005-2007 working with Professor Nobuo Tanaka and developing monolithic silica capillary columns for reversed-phase chromatography. With more than 60 scientific papers and book chapters, and one co-edited book to his name on “Fast Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Methods in Food and Environmental Analysis”, he has been working for several years on the development of capillary electrophoresis, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and high resolution mass spectrometry methods for the analysis of environmental and food samples. At the moment his interests are focused in the analysis of fullerene nanoparticles, of polyphenols for the authentication of food products, and basically identification and confirmation strategies by high resolution mass spectrometry.
 

Encarnación Moyano is Associate Professor at the department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (1997), working in the Group of Chromatography, Capillary Electrophoresis and Mass Spectromtry. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the same University in 1994 working in the development of analytical methods (GC-MS and LC-MS) for the determination of oxy- and hydroxy-PAHs in atmospheric aerosol samples under the supervision of Professor M.T. Galceran. She was at the Mass Spectrometry Research Unit (University of Swansea, Wales, UK) during a postdoctoral fellowship in 1995 for the determination of quaternary ammonium herbicides by CE-MS/MS under the supervision of Professor David Games. In 2009, she went to the Aston Lab (West Lafayete, Indiana, USA) as visitor professor to work with Professor Graham Cooks in the implementation of ambient ionization techniques (reactive-desorption electrospray-mass spectrometry method, r-DESI-MS) for the determination of corticoids in biological fluids. She has been the supervisor of different Ph.D. and masters and she has published more than 85 scientific papers and book chapter. She is actually the President of the Spanish Mass Spectrometry Society (SEEM). Her research work is focused on the developing analytical tools based on coupling separation techniques to mass spectrometry (GC-MS, LC-MS, CE-MS) and exploring the applicability of different ionization techniques (ESI, APCI, APPI, DESI) and mass analyzers (quadropoles, ion-traps, TOF, ICR-FTMS, Orbitrap, etc.) to provide selective and sensitive methods for the determination of organic compounds in environmental, food and biological samples, as well as to study the mass fragmentation pathways for their characterization.