Dr. Voyksner will be teaching LC-MSMS 302 course entitled: Advanced LC-MS/MS method development, method trouble shooting and instrument operation needed in developing successful methods for Molecular identification and Quantitation in the clinical lab. at MSACL (Montreal Canada) on September 21-23, 2025
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Course summary
Objective:
- This course is designed for the scientist that uses LC-MS/MS in the clinical lab, who wants a deeper understanding in steps towards developing successful methods, optimizing methods, trouble shoot methods and solving problems employing LC-MS/MS.
- The course covers important aspects in understanding and optimization ionization with electrospray on multiple instrument platforms including triple quadrupole, time-of-flight, quadrupole time of flight and orbit trap mass analyzers.
- The course will Discussion sample preparation, modes of chromatography and MS/MS considerations with respect to method development and optimization for the analysis of “real-world” samples by LC-MS/MS, to achieve the best sensitivity, specificity, and sample throughput.
- The course will cover all aspects of quantitative LC/MS/MS assays development and troubleshooting for small clinical molecules, peptides and proteins.
- The course will introduce concepts needed for the interpretation of MS/MS mass spectra.
Specific topics that are covered include:
- Understanding API ionization processes for electrospray, APCI and APPI, what affects the ionization process and how to maximize the ionization for compounds of interest.
- Understanding the effects of LC columns (dimensions and particles size), flow rate, and mobile phases have upon the separation and LC/MS analysis.
- Determining the type of ions that can form by electrospray and APCI, how to interpret the MS and MS/MS spectra and approaches on how to perform qualitative analysis in LC-MS/MS and high-resolution MS/MS.
- Understanding important issues that affect quantitative analytical results and how to optimize the method to achieve the best performance, reduce matrix suppression, reduce background and generate the best accuracy and precision.
- Exploring what new techniques are available (e.g. direct analysis MS, chip method and MS
instrumentation) that can improve the results one can obtain. - Discuss aspects of method development and method trouble shooting from example problems of
real world problem in quantitative LC-MS/MS. - Open forum discussing attendees’ specific problems they face in method development, analysis and troubleshooting LC/MS/MS methods.
This course focuses on method development method trouble shooting and application for the analysis of both small and large molecules that are clinically relevant. All examples are taken from real world analyses, performed by Dr. Voyksner at LCMS Limited. The concepts presented in the course are reinforced through numerous problem sets the attendees will work on throughout the 16 hour course.
These concepts will be valuable for the course attendees in developing and troubleshooting their own methods and enable a better understanding on how to improve their LC/MS/MS method. The last part of the course is an open forum where each attendee is invited to share a current LC-MS/MS issue they face. As a class we work through potential solutions and experiments to be performed to find a solution to the student problem, applying the concepts taught in the class and Dr. Voyksner’s 40 plus years of experience in LC-MS/MS. From past classes this has been the attendee’s favorite part of the class.
Prerequisite: Working knowledge analytical chemistry, including experience with LC separations and/or mass spectrometry. Attending level 100 or 200 LC/MS courses at MSACL would be beneficial. This is a course for those who want to increase their understanding of LC-MS/MS, who want to learn how to develop a successful quantitative and qualitative LC-MS/MS assay and a deeper understanding the technique to achieve better sensitivity, specificity or throughput in their laboratory.