Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches MetWorks 1.2 for Accurate Metabolite Identification

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced the launch of MetWorksTM 1.2, an updated version of its successful metabolite identification software. Thermo Scientific MetWorks is a powerful data-mining tool for small molecules that can be used to search for and identify a variety of metabolites with a high degree of accuracy and confidence. Thermo Fisher will showcase the newest capabilities of MetWorks at the 15th North American Regional ISSX Meeting in San Diego, California on October 12-16, 2008.

MetWorks facilitates the acquisition, processing and reporting of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry data. Dr. Yingying Huang, strategic marketing specialist for the metabolism and metabolomics group at Thermo Fisher Scientific, explains: “Thanks to a range of new features, the latest version of the software will dramatically simplify and speed up the search for expected and unexpected biotransformations.”

MetWorks 1.2 boasts a new graphical user interface (GUI) that exploits the power of multiple mass defect filters (MMDF). Mass defect filtering is one of the most powerful and sophisticated ways of using high-resolution mass data to obtain a smaller, more refined data set for review. The interactive MMDF GUI displays the distribution of parent and potential metabolites and allows both novice and expert users to mine the data in a quick and easy manner. Combined with high-resolution data from a Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap™ mass spectrometer, MetWorks facilitates extraction of low levels of metabolite ions, even when they are three to four orders of magnitude less abundant than the background matrix ions, thus providing a significantly enhanced signal-to-noise ratio.

This latest version of the software also features a new concise summary report that conforms to industry standards, as well as provides accurate mass analysis data (with ppm values). Additionally, there are new Analyte and Modification Managers which automatically calculate accurate masses for parent compounds and potential biotransformations using standard molecular formulae.

MetWorks software is compatible with all Thermo Scientific mass spectrometers capable of performing MS/MS and MSn fragmentation. It takes advantage of reproducible MSn fragmentation data and enables analysis of high-resolution accurate mass data, available from the Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer and LTQ FTTM Fourier transform instruments, to be fully exploited.

As Dr. Huang explains, “MetWorks 1.2 is powerful, easy to use and provides confident and accurate results in less time. This enables researchers and developers working in the pharmaceutical industry to streamline the drug discovery and development processes. They will find this tool invaluable.”

For more information on Thermo Scientific MetWorks software, as well as other Thermo Scientific products, please visit Thermo Scientific booth 1 at the 15th North American Regional ISSX Meeting in San Diego on October 12-16.