Kingston, Ontario, Canada – 2 March 2020
Trajan Scientific and Medical (Trajan) and Queen’s University (Queen’s), Kingston, Canada, have been awarded a Mitacs Accelerate grant to develop new multiple electrospray (MES) technologies to increase throughput and sensitivity in mass spectrometry (MS).
The existing partnership between Trajan and Queen’s will directly benefit from the Mitacs Accelerate grant, enabling continued research into the performance of novel front-end solutions for MS.
Trajan’s CEO, Mr Stephen Tomisich said, “Core to Trajan’s commercial success is partnering with leading academic groups in key research areas that add value to analytical workflows, to ultimately make a positive impact on human wellbeing through improved scientific measurements.”
Trajan and Queen’s have been collaborating since 2016 on multi-lumen emitter tip technology developed by Professor Richard Oleschuk’s research group and Université Laval’s Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Québec City, Canada.
SEM high resolution image of the multi-nozzle emitter with nine independent channels. Each channel is 10 micrometers, which is approximately 1/10th the diameter of the average human hair.
Queen’s Professor Richard Oleschuk, said, “We are excited to have Trajan support further development of our patented multi emitter platform. It is gratifying to see how innovation at Queen’s University is being translated into commercial products for the mass spectrometry community.”
“Trajan is helping bridge the commercialization void, bringing a Queen’s/Laval technology closer to a commercialized product.” said Prof Oleschuk.
“Advances in improving sensitivity will drive the mass spectrometry field over the foreseeable future. Through our partnership with Trajan, we hope to capitalize on Queen’s/Laval University technologies to enhance and ruggedize mass spectrometry.” said Prof Oleschuk.
The new Mitacs supported project covers fabrication of novel MES glass technologies that will help improve the throughput and sensitivity of ESI-MS to measure biological, environmental and pharmaceutical compounds.
Video snapshot of the MES emitter actively spraying into the MS inlet.
Trajan is a world leader in manufacturing and providing MS solutions to the global market, particularly in the design of precision fluidic components with instrument integration expertise for more robust solutions.
Mr Tomisich said, “We have identified Canada as a growth area for MS technologies, and we are engaging with economic development groups in Ontario and Alberta to build a nationwide hub for our R&D in health sciences.”
Dr Andrew Gooley, Trajan’s Chief Scientific Officer said, “Working with Queen’s University over the past four years, we have witnessed technology translate from bench-top academic research, through to the commercialization stage.”
“This rewarding collaboration has also resulted in a member of Professor Richard Oleschuk’s research group, Dr Kyle Bachus, joining Trajan to continue to drive the development of this technology both technically and commercially.” said Dr Gooley.
Dr Kyle Bachus, General Manager of Trajan’s Precision Fluidic Systems Business Unit, says that, “From completing my own PhD at Queens, and now leading the MS program at Trajan, I have experienced firsthand how these partnerships can help accelerate technology development.”
“I am thrilled to be involved in this project to develop new MES technology, to offer high-throughput high-sensitivity analysis; essentially running microflow liquid chromatography (LC) with the sensitivity of nano-ESI which can’t be achieved with traditional MS emitters.” said Dr Bachus.
Photo from Queen's University: Prof Richard Oleschuk and Dr Kyle Bachus, June 2017.
Emitters are used in high sensitivity LCMS in a wide range of research applications, such as environmental monitoring, biomedical applications, drug discovery and therapeutic drug monitoring. Compared to current emitters available on the market, MES emitters are predicted to provide more efficient ion generation, most notably in the field of proteomics.
The next stage of the project is set to start in 2020.
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Press release [PDF]
Related news
Trajan developing devices and components to enhance sensitivity of nanoESI-MS
More information
Mitacs Accelerate
Queen’s University at Kingston
Prof. Richard Oleschuk
Université Laval’s Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers
Media contact information
Trajan Scientific and Medical
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 568 844
media@trajanscimed.com
