• UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Metabolomics Instruments

Instruments

Our facility utilizes 8 mass spectrometers for conducting untargeted and targeted metabolomics analysis. This includes 6 LC-MS instruments such as 3 triple quadrupole MS for targeted metabolomics analysis and 3 high-resolution MS for untargeted metabolomics analysis. We also have 2 quadrupole GC-MS instruments for targeted metabolomics analysis that includes largescale metabolite profiling. 

Our lab purchased an Agilent 6560C ion mobility Q-TOF LC/MS system* that enables optimal separation and selectivity by combining chromatography, ion mobility, and mass spectrometry that enable metabolite identification through collection of retention time, collision cross section (CCS), m/z, and MS2 data, respectively. This includes separation of in-class isomers via high-resolution demultiplexing (HRdm). It has the following features:

  • In-spectrum Dynamic Range: 5 orders of magnitude
  • MS and MS/MS Mass Accuracy: <1 and <2 ppm RMS, respectively
  • Ion Mobility Resolution: 200 FWHM
  • TOF Mass Resolution: >42,000 FWHM
  • TOF mass range: m/z 20 – 20,000
  • Connected with Agilent 1290 Infinity II UHPLC

For: Untargeted analysis (primarily Lipidomics)

The Agilent 6546 Q-TOF LC/MS system offers simultaneous high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, high resolution, isotope fidelity, and accurate mass measurements. It has the following features:

  • In-spectrum Dynamic Range: 5 orders of magnitude
  • MS and MS/MS Mass Accuracy <0.8 and <2 ppm RMS, respectively
  • TOF Mass Resolution: >60,000 FWHM
  • TOF mass range: m/z 20 – 10,000
  • Connected with Agilent 1290 Infinity II UHPLC

For: Untargeted analysis

A benchtop triple Quadrupole mass spectrometer designed for LC/MS/MS analysis. Available IonDrive™ Turbo V Source includes ESI, and APCI. It has the following features:

  • Scan modes include: full scan and selected ion scan for both Q1 and Q3, Product Ion Scan, Precursor Ion Scan, Neutral Loss Scan, Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM)
  • Mass range of m/z 5 ~ m/z 2,000
  • Up to 6 orders of linear dynamic range
  • Increased throughput with polarity switching speeds of 5 msec
  • Connected with Agilent 1290 Infinity II UHPLC

For: Targeted analysis

Xevo TQ Absolute XR is an ultimate performance benchtop tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer which combines Absolute Power with eXtreme Robustness to quantitate your most challenging compounds and make fast decisions. It features the StepWave XR ion guide which protects downstream ion optics from contamination and significantly improves instrument robustness whilst maintaining maximum sensitivity and speed. It has the following features:

  • Scan modes include: full scan, product ion scan, precursor ion scan, constant neutral loss scan, Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), Simultaneous Full scan, and MRM (RADAR)
  • Sources and Ionization modes: ESI/APCI/ESCi multi-mode source and DESI XS targeted MS imaging source
  • Mass range of m/z 2 ~ m/z 2048
  • Connected with Waters Acquity H-class UPLC system

For: Targeted analysis and Imaging

The Agilent 6495C LC/TQ is designed for stable, reliable and consistent performance. It has the following features:

  • Scan modes include: MS1 scan, MS2 scan, product ion scan, neutral loss scan, neutral gain scan, precursor ion scan, SIM, and MRM (static, dynamic, triggered)
  • Mass range of m/z 5 ~ m/z 3,000
  • Up to 6 orders of linear dynamic range from the LOD
  • Polarity switching speeds of ≤25 msec
  • Up to 13,500 ion transitions per method
  • Connected with Agilent 1290 Infinity II UHPLC

For: Targeted analysis

A benchtop mass spectrometer designed for small metabolite analysis. It has the following features:

  • Equipped with an EI source.
  • 7890B GC with 5977A Extractor XL MS
  • With commercial Wiley and NIST libraries
  • Mass range of m/z 2 ~ m/z 800
  • Operated with MassHunter Software

For: Targeted analysis and profiling

A benchtop mass spectrometer designed for small metabolite analysis. It has the following features:

  • Equipped with EI source.
  • 7890A GC with 5975C MS
  • With commercial Wiley and NIST libraries
  • Mass range of m/z 2 ~ m/z 800

For: Targeted analysis and profiling

Note: We no longer manage a SpectraMax M2 Multilabel Microplate Reader. The microplate reader is located in MRL Carver BioMaker Laboratory People interested in using the plate reader need to contact Kristen Flatt at flatt1@illinois.edu.

Software

The Carver Metabolomics Core both creates its own software, as well as uses various external software for the purposes of data processing, feature identification/classification, and statistical analysis. Listed below are those currently used internally. These will be made publicly available in the future.

Internal Software created and used by the Carver Metabolomics Core

Software written in R used for post-processing of MS-Dial-acquired untargeted metabolomics data.

Software written in R for streamlined MS library creation