Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): Seminar of Tandem Mass Spectrometry Techniques

The seminar entitled "Applications of Tandem Mass Spectrometry Techniques in Food/Drug and Environmental Industry" was held on 18 February 2011 (Friday). Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) was the organizer and two co-organizers were Hong Kong Society of Mass Spectrometry (HKSMS) and Hong Kong Chemical Society (HKCS). The event was summarized below for sharing.

Mr. Richard Lam (Manager, Biotechnology Cluster of HKSTP) gave the welcome remarks.

The first speaker was Prof. Zongwei Cai (Chair Professor, Head of Dept. of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU); HKSMS) and his topic named "Application of LC-MS for Drug Testing and Food Analysis".

Firstly, Prof. Cai introduced the problem we faced such as food safety and drug analysis. And some local pharmaceutical cases were shared.

Then Prof. Cai briefed the common techniques in High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).

Fundamental principles of Mass Spectrometry (MS) were mentioned.

Tandem MS (or MS/MS) was introduced for drug analysis.

Using LC-MS (or LC-MS/MS) for drug and food analysis was discussed and LC-MS/MS could solve the matrix problem.

This technique could be employed for DNA analysis.

Dioxin was analysed for environmental issue.

The level of Dioxine in Human Mike was 14pg/g fat in Hong Kong in 2001-02.

Finally, Prof. Cai introduced Dioxine Laboratory in HKBU which was accredited by HOKLAS.

The second speaker was Dr. Kim-hung Lam (Instructor, Dept. of Applied Biology & Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU); HKCS) and his presentation entitled "Analysis of environmental PAHs using GC-MS".

Dr. Lam introduced different types of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) which were a large group of organic compounds with 2 or more fused aromatic rings. Most of them were carcinogenic.

US-EPA identified 16 PAHs pollution for control in higher priority.

Then Dr. Lam briefed the history of PAHs.

Microwave extraction technique was introduced and other extraction techniques were reviewed.

PAHs analysis by GC/MS/SIM were showed.

The last speaker was Mr. Leo Chou (Chemical Analysis Product Manager, Bruker Taiwan) and his topic was "The advantage and application of GC-MS/MS".

Diagram explanation of MS/MS process was showed.

The GC/MS/MS could reduce the noise without false positive result was explained.

The benefit of MS/MS were summarized as Great Selectivity, Better Detection Limits, Quality Spectra, Less Sample Cleanup, Additional Structural Information, and Additional Confirmation.