This week, I came across a touching ‘In Memoriam’ from staff at the University of Delaware dedicated to Jean Futrell, a man often described as one of the founding fathers of modern mass spectrometry. Reading some of the extracts, it’s clear the impact that he had both professionally and personally on the people he worked with throughout his career.
Jean was viewed by many as one of the driving forces behind the advancement of chemistry during the 20th century, receiving multiple awards and serving as the president of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry. In a career spanning over 50 years, his greatest accomplishment is arguably the invention of the tandem mass spectrometer.
Below is just one of many lovely stories I read from his colleagues, more of which can be found here:
Klaus Theopold, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry: “[Jean] was an accomplished physical chemist as well as a charming man. I fondly recall his sense of humor and quick wit (when my spellchecker caused me to address a message to him to ‘Jean Futile,’ he promptly began his reply with ‘Dear Claws’). Jean’s tenure at UD began a transformation that continued well beyond his departure in 1998. Those few of us who knew him will remember him fondly.”
Portable PFAS Profiling
A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, have designed a cost-effective device to identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – the group of “forever chemicals” that resist environmental degradation and are associated with a wide range of health complications.
The technology serves as a timely alternative to LC-MS – the current “gold standard” for PFAS testing. We had the opportunity to speak to Chang Lui and Xiaojun Wei, two members of the development team, about their device. “Combining experimental analysis, ion transport modeling, and molecular dynamics simulations, this approach lays the groundwork for a portable device capable of real-time PFAS monitoring across diverse environments”.
Keeping Up with the Power List: Part 1
What are the most exciting developments and emerging trends in analytical science today? Here are some of the mass spectrometry-related answers given by some of the members of our 2024 Power List:
Michael Gonsior: The advancement in mass spectrometry to become even more sensitive, to increase dramatically resolution as well as new ways to separate compounds (e.g., ion mobility).
David H. Russell: Recently developed mass spectrometry technologies have transcended traditional roles of studies of gas phase ions to studies of large biomolecules in their native solution environment.
Robert Kennedy: I'm impressed with the continued improvements in mass spectrometry in terms of speed, resolution, and sensitivity. Allowing the merging of this with microscale methods (microfluidics, nano LC etc.) is creating lots of opportunities in analysis including high-throughput, ultrasmall samples (single cells).
Click here to find out what the rest of the 2024 Power Listers had to say.
Worth Your Time
Researchers assess various rounded turn designs in a structures for lossless ion manipulation (SLIM) ion mobility (IM) system coupled with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, to enable high resolution IM measurements for small molecule analytes. Link
A mass-guided MSI workflow for prescan imaging for small molecule–mass spectrometry (PRISM-MS) enables efficient mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of single cell lipids and metabolites. Link
Researchers compare proteomics interactions between healthy patients and those with acute hepatitis of unknown etiology (non-HepA-E hepatitis) using high-resolution and label-free LC-MS/MS. Link
A team uses proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology to degrade the scaffolding function of receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), using mass spectrometry to observe effects across the whole proteome. Link
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