Sample Submission Guidelines
for the mass spectrometry facility.

Please discuss with a mass spectrometry facility personnel about the nature of your samples and the types of information you expected from the experiments prior to your sample submission.

For LC/MS analysis, it is preferable that samples have already been run on an LC system using a mass spectrometry compatible LC method with a suitable (e.g. UV, fluorescence, etc) detection (flow rate at 0.2 ml/ml and preferably using water and acetonitrile in 0.05% formic acid as mobile phases) to ensure the elution of all components (and the separation of compounds of interest from others) of the samples from the column at the end of the analysis. Samples should be dissolved in water, methanol or acetronitrile at a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml or less. Avoid using DMSO and DMF. All sample solutions should be filtered prior to sample injection.

For GC/MS analysis, samples should be dissolved in methylene chloride, acetonitrile or methanol at a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml or less.

In order to obtain the most accurate results, please consider the following guidelines:

Sample conc to be ~ 0.1 mg / ml

For ESI ;  no salts or buffers   Use “Zip tip”  to desalt or C18 column for larger quantities

Weak acids like Formic or Acetic are OK in 0.1% amounts and aid protonation of peptides and proteins
(ESI of organics usually does not require use of these acids to give a good signal and may even  benefit from addition of Na to give an M+Na cation)

For special handling of thermally unstable  or air/moisture sensitive samples please see Stephen Chan to arrange the analysis.