4D performance gains for highly multiplexed gut microbiome metabolite quantification

Developing highly multiplexed targeted quantitation methods for small molecules remains challenging, requiring optimized chromatographic separation and acquisition strategies to balance scale, sensitivity, and throughput. Traditional approaches often depend on extensive analytical standards or repeated injections for method optimization.

The Thermo Scientific LC-MSⁿ workflow enables faster development of multiplexed targeted assays by leveraging the mzCloud mass spectral database to automate PRM data acquisition and processing using the Thermo Scientific Stellar Mass Spectrometer. Compared with SRM, this approach delivers up to 10× faster method creation and expands analyte coverage by 3–5× with improved sensitivity and confidence.

In this webinar, we demonstrate the complete workflow using gut microbiome metabolite quantitation as a model system, covering more than 200 metabolites. We compare 15- and 5-minute LC gradients to showcase acquisition efficiency while highlighting gains achieved through microflow operation. The webinar also illustrates how this workflow can be extended to other complex targeted applications, including pesticides and industrial compounds, where analytical standards are often costly, limited in availability, or non-existent.

Presenter: Wes Rogers (Product Management Specialist, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Wes is a Product Management Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific for the Stellar MS. Before this role, Wes spent the last 3 years as a LC-MS Field Application Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific, supporting customers on small and large molecules applications. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, Wes spent the majority of his career in sports anti-doping at LGC.

Presenter: Marynka Ulaszewska (Product Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Marynka is an analytical chemist with over twelve years of experience in the application of mass spectrometry for both quantitative and qualitative methods in food safety, clinical sciences, and environmental areas. She has dedicated her scientific career to biomarker discovery in human metabolomics, focusing on human nutrition, cardiovascular diseases, and the fascinating interplay between microbiome structure/function and the regulation of host physiology. Currently, she serves as the Product Manager for mzCloud and spectral libraries solutions.