Advancing Mass Spectrometry With Sustainability in Mind

Each year, the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference shines a spotlight on the latest advances in mass spectrometry (MS) science.

At this year’s edition of the conference, Agilent Technologies unveiled two new products – the 7010D Triple Quadrupole GC/MS System and the Agilent ExD Cell, for use with the 6545XT AdvanceBio LC/Q-TOF system.

To learn more about these new additions to Agilent’s portfolio, Technology Networks sat down with Jennifer Gushue, Associate Vice President of Mass Spectrometry Marketing, and Tarun Anumol, Director of Global Environment Markets.

Alexander Beadle (AB): Agilent is launching two new mass spectrometry products at ASMS this year – the 7010D Triple Quadrupole GC/MS System and the ExD Cell for use on the 6545XT AdvanceBio LC/Q-TOF system. Can you tell us a little more about them and who they are for?

Jennifer Gushue (JG): The ExD Cell is a new addition to our portfolio of capabilities, and integrated fully into our 6545XT Q-TOF. The ExD cell enables customers in life science research and biopharma, who are performing peptide and protein characterization, to now get a whole new degree of peptide and protein sequence information. This provides scientists with greater confidence and critical information in areas such as intact protein structural analysis, GLP-1 sequencing and site specific phosphorylation modifications achieved through genetic code expansion (GCE) techniques. 

Our other new product is the 7010D Triple Quadrupole GC/MS system. With the integration of the new high-efficiency source, HES 2.0, the 7010D delivers not only the next level of sensitivity our customers expect but also unparalleled reliability. It is designed for a wide spectrum of uses, particularly in scenarios where high sensitivity and consistent performance through robustness are crucial.

These product launches are heavily influenced by customer demands. In regulated sectors, there is a constant push for reduced levels as the volume of samples processed continues to rise. Customers continuously face stringent deadlines, making rapid results essential. This also applies to food testing and other similar areas, where it's vital to quickly detect any present contaminants.

AB: At the conference this year, Agilent’s central theme has been “intelligence that drives performance.” Can you tell us more about what “intelligence” means in this context?

JG: I always go back to our daily lives. For example, the amount of information we have on our smart devices is incredible. If we were to imagine taking that access away we would find ourselves at a huge loss — from checking the weather, the news, your vehicle status, the temperature in your home, your lock settings, etc — the connection to data and access to devices provides incredible advantages.

Similarly, bringing that intelligence into the world of analytical instrumentation, where we have access to instrument information that we never had before. If we think about uptime, if something's going awry on the mass spec, you're going to have to start troubleshooting from scratch. With the Agilent systems, we have sensors that can diagnose the issue for the user. It's a lot faster, not only for the people in the lab, but if there has to be a service call, the service engineer knows exactly what to address.

Instrument intelligence can also improve instrument performance. Agilent developed Autotune decades ago Since then, we've expanded the capabilities and our instruments use an AI-based particle SWARM autotune. Instead of tuning each lens element one at a time and then going back to optimize, it can perform a multi-parameter analysis, for optimal instrument performance.

AB: Is sustainability something that is at the forefront of the mind when you are creating and launching new analysis solutions, such as the 7010D and ExD Cell?

JG: Sustainability is a high priority initiative throughout all of Agilent. A number of products in our portfolio already have My Green Lab certification, including the 7010D GC/TQ and 6545XT LC/QTOF.

And it's not just in mass spectrometry. Within our culture at Agilent, many of our facilities utilize solar panels and renewable energy, and we're continually improving our sustainable solutions within manufacturing.

This is something that is top of mind for us, which is one of the reasons we are working with My Green Lab. Now customers have an independent organization to certify our instrument sustainability claims, and they can get a sense of the issues we’re addressing. But we also learn about areas where we're doing really well, and areas that we can improve. 

Tarun Anumol (TA): Environmental sustainability, that is the ethos of the company, and ties in with a lot of our core business being on the environmental testing side. We’ve spent a lot of time understanding our customers’ needs. We’ve worked with many customers to simplify methods, make the methods greener, reduce solvent usage in their labs, and provide our expertise so that they can do less sample preparation and produce less waste. It all ties in with our company’s goal – to make the planet a better place.

Jennifer Gushue and Tarun Anumol were speaking to Alexander Beadle, Science Writer at Technology Networks.

About the interviewees:

Jennifer Gushue is the Associate Vice President of Mass Spectrometry Marketing. With over 20 years of commercial experience in the life sciences industry, Jennifer’s career has been focused on mass spectrometry instruments, software and solutions, in the fields of chemical analysis, life sciences, and clinical research. Jennifer joined Agilent in 2004 and holds a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Bishop’s University and a PhD in Cell Biology from McGill University.

Tarun Anumol is the Global Environment Market Director at Agilent Technologies. His areas of specialization include water treatment, environmental monitoring, and advanced analytical chemistry. Before joining Agilent, Tarun earned his PhD in Chemical & Environmental Engineering from the University of Arizona.