Automatic Characterization of Lipids from MALDI MS/MS Data Using SimLipid™ Software

Within lipid research mass spectrometry is one of the most sophisticated technologies for identification and quantification of lipids from biological mixtures. MALDI TOF MS analysis has unique advantages for structural characterization of lipids and recently, Phosphatidylcholines or Glycerophosphocholines (PC) have been detected by direct tissue analysis using MALDI-TOF-MS.1-4 However, the major challenge in mass spectrometric analysis of lipids by MS and MS/MS is the huge amount of data generated in the process. In addition, the structural analysis of lipids by mass spectrometry is not routine and often requires tedious, time consuming manual spectral interpretation. SimLipidTM software is a comprehensive informatics tool for characterizing lipids by MS and MS/MS data which streamlines this type of data analysis.