Newly Developed Ionization-Assisting Substrate will Drastically Reduce Pretreatment Time in Imaging Mass Spectrometry

Hamamatsu Photonics has newly developed ionization-assisting substrates called the DIUTHAME series. DIUTHAME is an acronym for Desorption Ionization Using Through Hole Alumina MEmbrane that utilize porous alumina to drastically reduce the pretreatment time needed for ionizing a sample or analyte to be analyzed by imaging mass spectrometry.

To complete sample-pretreatment for mass spectrometry, all one has to do is place the DIUTHAME substrate on the sample. This shortens the pretreatment time to about one tenth that of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization or MALDI which is a mainstream ionization technique for mass spectrometry. DIUTHAME is also usable for measurement with existing MALDI-TOF-MS. Sample DIUTHAME products will be available from May 11, 2018, mainly to researchers in companies and universities in Japan and overseas who are currently using MALDI-TOF-MS in drug discovery and industrial fields.

DIUTHAME was jointly developed with the help of Associate Professor Yasuhide Naito, the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries (Hamamatsu, Japan). DIUTHAME will be on display at the ASMS (American Society for Mass Spectrometry) Conference 2018 to be held in the San Diego Convention Center (California, USA) for 5 days from June 3 (Sunday) to June 7 (Thursday).