Waters Corporation and Vanderbilt University Medical Centre have entered into a collaborative research initiative using the former's Maldi Synapt High Definition MS (HDMS) System for enhanced tissue imaging capabilities in oncology research within the University's Mass Spectrometry Research Centre.

Researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre are focused on novel mass spectrometry (MS) approaches to identify and visualise protein expression changes in cells as they transform from a healthy state through various stages of cancer.

"The goal of tissue imaging is to provide a window into the changes in the cellular proteome in disease," said Professor Richard Caprioli, director, Mass Spectrometry Research Centre at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre. "We look forward to evaluating the use of ion mobility for enhanced Maldi imaging combined with high resolution, high sensitivity, orthogonal time-of-flight (Tof) mass spectrometry. Ultimately, we hope that enhanced tissue imaging techniques will provide data sets to be mined for diagnostic and prognostic information related to the various stages of cancer."

The Synapt HDMS system is the only commercial instrument to incorporate high efficiency ion mobility separation in a dual ionisation mass spectrometer giving scientists maximum analytical power for discovery research challenges.

"The Vanderbilt University collaboration is the latest example of how Waters works with leading researchers to push the limits of science," said Brian Smith, vice president, Mass Spectrometry Operations, Waters Division. "By working with the preeminent research group in the field, we expect to derive significant insight into the power of MALDI tissue imaging for biological applications and its potential for diagnostic purposes; not to mention the potential positive impact from better understanding the cellular proteome of one of world's most devastating diseases."

Waters introduced the Synapt HDMS System at the American Society of Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in Seattle in June of 2006. It is the first commercially-available mass spectrometer with the ability to analyze ions by their size, shape and charge in addition to mass. Waters added Maldi-capability to the Synapt HDMS System in 2007 and at Pittcon 2007. The product bagged the Pittcon's Editor's Gold Award as Best New Product as well as Instrument Business Outlook newsletter's top prize for best new product.