Mass spectrometry goes chromatography-free for high-throughput routine screening
What’s the DART Advantage?
Bruker's EVOQ® DART-TQ+ is the world's first triple quadrupole MS system that has a fully integrated DART source. With this plug-and-play ion source, the fastest triple quadrupole electronics, and specifically designed DART software, chromatography-free screening methods deliver high quality targeted analysis in seconds.
If you also need conventional liquid chromatography (LC-MS) workflows in your lab, you can easily switch from the integrated DART source to the VIP-HESI source for either electrospray or APCI in seconds. The compact benchtop system is easy to use with exceptional speed, ultra-high sensitivity and a reduced environmental impact.
DART can also be added to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) instruments to improve versatility and boost throughput for rapid analysis of chemical compounds in specific applications including targeted and untargeted analysis.
DART offers a future-proof solution – it exceeds current regulatory standards for screening and easily adapts for future drug detection and contaminant analysis.
Take a deeper dive with us into how chromatography-free DART technology can deliver new benefits to your lab.
How Can Chromatography-Free MS Help?
MS has a long-established pedigree in scientific and medical research and now routine, analytical labs can benefit from this advanced technology in an easy-to-use benchtop instrument tailored for their needs.
Chromatography-free MS simplifies applied workflows by removing the need for the initial separation step. This drastically cuts solvent use, removes the need for consumables such as chromatography columns, and simplifies sample preparation for a faster, automated workflow, greatly increasing throughput to reduce sample backlogs and accelerate turnaround times.
Is Chromatography-Free the Future?
For screening and quantitation in the routine lab, which processes hundreds, possibly thousands of samples a day, chromatography-free offers a fast, reliable and robust method.
Where complex separations are needed, there will always be a place for chromatography –certainly in the next few years at least. In environmental analysis, for example, highly sensitive methods that pair chromatography with ion mobility are needed to achieve the results required.
The table below summarizes the benefits of chromatography-free workflows:
| Chromatography-free workflows | Standard chromatography workflows |
| Sample screening in less than 30 seconds | Sample screening can take up to 40 minutes |
| No LC solvents needed = a sustainable profile | LC solvents required are expensive and classified as hazardous |
| Minimal downtime: low maintenance | Specialist maintenance is needed / columns must be replaced |
| Simple workflows for use by non-experts | More complex, lengthy workflows and operation requiring specialist user training |
| Minimal sample preparation | Extensive sample preparation |
| Highly efficient operation | Longer analysis times mean higher energy consumption - and limit productivity |
| Lower total cost of ownership | Higher total cost of ownership |
Learn more about moving to a chromatography-free world in this interview with Jeff Zonderman, SVP, Bruker Applied Mass Spectrometry:
What Are the Key Benefits of Chromatography-Free?
1. Robust analysis at the speed of DART
Direct Analysis in Real Time-Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) is a fast, robust and high-throughput chromatography-free screening technique. Unlike conventional MS, DART-MS can be quickly up and running via a single-point software interface, the DART Control plug-in, for use by non-experts to screen for and quantify the presence of compounds in a sample.
A typical liquid chromatography-MS (LC-MS) system used across routine labs can only process a limited number of samples a day. DART can increase this capacity tenfold on a single mass spectrometer, with the ability to boost sample analysis volume from 100-200 samples to more than 1,500 samples a day.
2. Accurate results from expert and routine-users
The high-throughput, quantitative assays offered by DART-MS are robust, reproducible and accurate using a simplified workflow on a familiar triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, detecting even trace amounts of compounds in a sample. With its high-throughput capability, DART enables significant gains in lab efficiency and productivity with no need for specialist user training.
3. Easy to install and maintain
DART integrates easily with your current lab infrastructure in a familiar workflow that doesn’t require specialist training. New preloaded sample kits that are ready to go for your chosen application have been optimized for use with DART, making the process even easier.
4. Minimal downtime
The system offers rapid instrument clean-down and ease of maintenance to maximize operational uptime – and productivity – even by non-MS specialists.
5. Cuts up to 95% waste for a sustainable profile
Chromatography-free methods deliver a strong sustainability profile. They cut solvent use and remove up to 95% of solvent waste in certain applications, improving the environment. In addition, many solvents used by traditional chromatography are toxic to humans, classified as hazardous and generate waste that needs to be disposed of following increasingly strict hazardous material protocols.
6. Cuts costs to increase productivity
High-throughput laboratory environments need efficient techniques, fast results and minimal instrument downtime. Streamlined processes introduced by DART save time and resources – and take away expensive solvent use, consumables, and specialist user training. The cost savings with a chromatography-free DART workflow are clear.
Learn more about how chromatography-free speeds up analysis and eliminates waste:
What Types of Applications Can Benefit From Chromatography-Free DART Methods?
Seized drugs and controlled substance screening and identification
With sample backlogs continuing to delay the administration of justice, fast sample analysis is critical. To tackle this complex challenge, reliable targeted and untargeted seized drug and controlled substance analysis is required. DART tackles the problem head on, delivering definitive, admissible results in seconds.
Rapid targeted analysis using DART technology and untargeted and NPS analysis with DART-HRMS provide streamlined workflow for comprehensive screening and chemical characterization.
Workplace drug testing
Mandatory workplace drug testing is becoming increasingly common globally and employers need a tick box response.
The PinPoint ToxBox panel can be integrated with DART-MS and DART-HRMS chromatography-free workflows to meet drug screening and confirmation requirements for drugs of abuse, prescribed medications, controlled substances, and new psychoactive substances to deliver legally-compliant results.
Forensic toxicology
Accelerating throughput without compromising accuracy in the forensic toxicology laboratory is a common goal.
For targeted quantitation, the EVOQ DART-TQ+ delivers chromatography-free screening in seconds – with a quick switch to LC-MS for analysis confirmation where needed.
The forensic toxicology reference database supplied with the Bruker TargetScreener HR workflow on a QTOF system facilitates screening and quantitation of substances as well as retrospective data evaluation of saved data.
Food quality
Quality control (QC) of raw ingredients, production, processing and finished product testing ensures that products meet the required quality standards.
Chromatography-free MS supports QC testing laboratories. The integration of DART allows for confident decisions in seconds, increasing lab throughput and maximizing efficiency.
Food authenticity
Food fraud is a growing concern across the globe, with the cost of economically motivated adulteration (EMA) estimated to total over $10 billion annually.
Chromatography-free workflows are an effective alternative for food sample analysis as they do not require extensive sample preparation, reducing analysis time significantly.
Contact us
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For Research Use Only. Not for Use in Clinical Diagnostic Procedures.