ASMS FTMS Interest Group 2017

The aim of the 2017 FTMS Interest Group workshop, at the ASMS conference in Indianapolis, was to discuss the experiences of the community when trying to analyse samples, to a consistently high mass accuracy, by FTMS methods – based on what was identified as an area of key interest at the previous workshop. We were particularly interested in discussing which factors impact mass accuracy on FTMS instruments and when is mass uncertainty adversely affecting results or the confidence in results, in practice?

The workshop began with two excellent short tutorials, covering the underlying theoretical reasons that govern achievable mass accuracy for both ICR and Orbitrap type FTMS instruments, given by Prof Peter O’Connor (University of Warwick, UK) and Dr Konstantin Aizikov (Thermo Fisher Scientific).  The aim of these tutorials was to remind us, as a community, how our use of our instruments has a direct effect on their performance, and why.  These tutorial talks can be downloaded here:

The interest group had been contacted, prior to the ASMS meeting, in order to solicit short (5 min) presentations, summarizing occasions where mass accuracy for FTMS had been a key component of some recent research – either with a fundamental positive or negative impact.  The aim of these short presentations was to catalyse discussion.  A number of proposals were received but, owing to time constraints, only 5 could be given.  Permission was requested to allow these talks to be posted online (as requested by members of the Interest Group) – talks where permission has been received are provided with download links.