Advancing Small Molecule Analysis For PFAS, Drugs and Contamination Detection
Bruker joined Technology Networks for a discussion about their new advances presented at ASMS 2025.
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At the 2025 American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference in Baltimore, Bruker launched its newest innovation, the timsMetabo™.
The benchtop timsMetabo mass spectrometer is designed for four-dimensional (4D)-metabolomics and 4D-lipidomics, achieving exceptional sensitivity through its trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) technology. The timsMetabo is further enhanced by a novel scan mode – Mobility Range Enhancement (MoRE) – which makes use of the enhanced ion capacity of the instrument’s dual-stage TIMS-MX ion funnel to expand its mass-to-charge and mobility ranges, as well as a new high-precision quadrupole and Bruker’s Athena Ion Processor (AIP).
Also at the conference, Bruker Applied Mass Spectrometry showcased new advancements for its Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) technology: the integration of RECIPE Chemicals + Instruments’ ClinMass® for LCMS and future introduction of the ClinDART® assay kits both of which will run on Bruker’s EVOQ® DART-TQ⁺ system. The ClinMass and ClinDART protocols are currently designated for research use only (RUO).
To learn more about these innovations and what they mean for applications such as therapeutic drug monitoring, drugs of abuse analysis and environmental analysis, Technology Networks spoke with Jeffrey Zonderman, senior vice-president of Bruker Applied Mass Spectrometry, during the ASMS event.
TIMS technology, explained
In TIMS, ions enter a TIMS tunnel using a gas flow. There, an electrical field is used to hold the ions stationary against the force of the gas flow. The holding position of the ions is determined by that ion’s mobility, meaning that when the electrical field is gradually powered down, the ions are released from the TIMS tunnel in a controlled manner according to their ion mobility. From the measured ion mobility, it is possible to derive the ion’s collision cross-section, which can indicate the ion’s size and shape.
“We have some really interesting researchers and collaborators who are using ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) and adding TIMS to it because even ultrahigh resolution is not enough; no matter how much resolution you have, high-res MS is just not enough. You need orthogonal separation with it,” Zonderman said.
Orthogonal separation
An orthogonal separation refers to the use of multiple different separation techniques to achieve a more complete separation of complex mixtures. This may be useful where a single chromatographic method is unable to resolve overlapping peaks or where the properties of several analytes of interest are very similar.
“TIMS can separate things out based not on mass-to-charge ratio, but by their shape and size – their collision cross-section,” said Zonderman. Coupled with MS, this can give you incredible separation and selectivity power.
“Even our customers who have more resolution than they could ever imagine, they still want to put TIMS in front of it because they need to separate those ions further based on shape and orientation,” he continued. “It’s really powerful.”
Supporting PFAS identification and environmental analysis
The timsMetabo instrument delivers new levels of sensitivity and separation power for metabolomics and lipidomics applications. However, the advancement it represents in small molecule analysis could also benefit other sectors that currently use TIMS tools, according to Zonderman.
“We deal with problems like wastewater analysis and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) analysis, where parts per trillion sensitivity, speed and minimal sample prep all drive the need for technologies like timsTOF [TIMS combined with a time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyzer],” Zonderman said. “We see that the timsMetabo will allow people to dig deeper into the new assays they start to develop for these challenges.”
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“We work with several collaborators, both in the US and in Europe. We have two collaborators presenting their PFAS research at ASMS, where they are using existing TIMS technologies – one using the timsTOF fleX MALDI [Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization] and the other the timsTOF Pro – to look at very complicated challenges in the analysis of PFAS,” Zonderman continued.
“I think that now, the timsMetabo – which has increased sensitivity as well as capabilities for small molecules – starts moving TIMS from being what people would think of as a proteomics tool, really into the world of metabolomics and also into my world of contaminant analysis and environmental analysis.”
According to the timsMetabo launch, in early studies, timsMetabo was able to identify 40% more low-mass molecules in water samples compared to previous-generation systems.
“We work with people who are looking at contaminants in wastewater or who are looking at PFAS contamination in soil, and they may want to do very complex experiments where there are thousands of PFAS analogs concerned,” Zonderman said. “TIMS can pull those out and look at those populations very nicely.”
Improving forensic toxicology and drug analysis
The latest innovations announced at ASMS are also aimed at expanding Bruker’s offering for applications such as forensic toxicology and therapeutic drug monitoring.
Bruker’s majority investment in RECIPE Chemicals + Instruments GmbH, a European provider of vendor-agnostic therapeutic drug monitoring and other clinical in vitro diagnostic kits, is one part of this effort. This collaboration has already been fruitful, confirming on a research basis the fundamental suitability of RECIPE’s ClinMass kits for use on Bruker’s EVOQ DART-TQ⁺ system (currently research use only) and launching the ClinDART kits for high-throughput therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), drugs of abuse screening and other applications.
“In the toxicology world, there’s a lot of interest in the untargeted analysis of drugs, because with drugs of abuse, there are a lot of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) coming onto the market that come and go, and also a lot of isomers to consider,” explained Zonderman. “The challenges in the market now with drugs of abuse are that you don’t necessarily know what you’re looking for.”
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The newly introduced timsMetabo (for research use only; not for use in clinical diagnostics) is also expected to advance Bruker’s capabilities which are currently in development for TDM and drugs of abuse screening.
“You are looking for minuscule levels of drugs that are highly potent and that look a lot like the other things that are in the sample as well,” Zonderman said. “timsTOF has an orthogonal separations technology that can detach things that would not just separate by using high-resolution MS alone.”
“The timsMetabo is perfect for things like that, where you need to separate things out based on their ion mobility characteristics. By getting rid of a lot of the matrix interference, that will allow you to see those very low-level drugs and their metabolites,” Zonderman added. “I see the timsMetabo being able to really look at these very complicated mixtures, isolate key components and establish what new entities are coming onto the drug market.”
The future of MS
Looking ahead to the future, Zonderman believes that these advances in MS, alongside Bruker’s innovative chromatography-free screening approach with DART and TIMS, are opening the door to a very exciting time for the sector.
“One of the taglines we use is ‘chromatography-free, for the masses,’” Zonderman said. “MS had been the exclusive province of experts, but I see that changing. Now, we have all of these tools that are making mass spectrometry more and more accessible.”
“I really think that chromatography-free MS is going to be the way to go – it is the more sustainable area to focus on. And we have seen a lot of uptake on that,” he concluded. “We made a really big deal about chromatography-free systems last year at ASMS, and we’ve done a lot since then.”
“This year, instead of us having to present it, we have a lot of customers and collaborators here who are proving what we talked about last year. Now we are demonstrating its implementation.”
