The last two weeks have been going under the title “thesis-thesis-thesis” in our group. This spring one BSc student and two MSc students from our group have defended their thesis: Sara Khabazbashi, Helen Sepman, and Thomas Ledbetter. Both Sara and Thomas have dug into the analytical standard free quantification for pollutants. Sara specifically focussed on metabolites of […]
Category Archives: Research
25
Feb
Feb
Non-targeted screening with liquid chromatography-electrospray high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/HRMS) is revealing hundred to thousands of contaminants in the water. We have recently proposed a way to quantify these contaminants based on the estimated LC/ESI/HRMS ionization efficiencies. But how to know how well such tools are performing? Well, we need to compare with classical methods that are […]
27
Jan
Jan
Today was the last day in the lab for our first intern, Helen, who was working with cyclic ion mobility. Helen joined the group in October as part of her Erasmus+ traineeship. Her project was to work on the structural identification of caffeine metabolites with two-dimensional ion mobility. But as sometimes in research happens, Helen […]
19
Oct
Oct
The difficulty in quantifying compounds in LC/ESI/HRMS arises from vastly different responsiveness of the compounds. At the same concentration, two compounds may yield very different signals due to the differences in the ionization efficiency of the compounds. The different responsiveness has made semi-quantitative non-targeted screening challenging. Still, research has been increasingly focussing on enabling the semi-quantification […]
01
Sep
Sep
In September a state-of-the-art cyclic-ion mobility high-resolution mass spectrometer (cyclic-IMS) will be installed in the MMK/ACES joint Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (“MassSLab”). This is the first cyclic-IMS in Sweden and one of the few in Europe. It is envisioned that this new instrument will open up exciting opportunities for novel experimentation while fostering new collaborations both […]
17
Aug
Aug
Last Friday two talented BSc students, Emma Palm and Louise Malm, in our group, defended their BSc thesis. They both focussed on making the LC/ESI/HRMS quantitative for the non-targeted analysis where standard substances are either not available or even the structure is not unequivocally identified. The thesis project of Louise focussed on kicking off the […]
25
May
May
Recently we have published a paper on advancement in predicting ionization efficiency in ESI and using this for estimating the concentration of pesticides in cereal samples without the need for analytical standards. In this paper, we explored the possibility to use machine learning for fast and accurate prediction of ionization efficiency. Previously we have carefully […]
05
Mar
Mar
Last week the 17th MassSpec forum took place in Vienna with two days full of exciting mass spec talks. The conference was open by Prof. Dr. Kevin Pagel who introduced the work of his group that has focussed on revealing the structure of sugar molecules in the gas phase. His group has made great use […]
28
Feb
Feb
After the move to Stockholm University, my group is looking for new members. Currently, we have available a post-doc position. If you enjoy coding, are interested in machine learning and applying these tools to solve problems in mass spectrometry and you hold a PhD or are graduating soon, this is your chance! For more information […]
Last week Dr. Jaanus Liigand received the first prize on the Estonian National Contest for University Students for his doctoral thesis Standard substance-free quantification for LC/ESI/MS analysis based on the predicted ionization efficiencies. During his PhD studies, Jaanus investigated quantitatively the factors affecting the ionization efficiency of compounds in electrospray ionization. For that ionization efficiencies for […]