Mass Spectrophotometry: An Advanced Technique in Biomedical Sciences

The age of metabolomics arrived in recent decades after genomics and proteomics dominated in biomedical sciences due to their applications [1]. Powerful techniques in the later cases such as transcript analysis, protein expression studies were useful to determine the molecular mechanism of biological phenomena at genomics and proteomics level [2,3]. During those past periods, biochemistry had very least role although the analyses of metabolites using individual conventional biochemical techniques had been used from past centuries. This is because; biochemist still had no powerful and reliable techniques to analyze the metabolites and proteins in biological samples. May be this is one of the major reasons why mass spectrophotometry (MS) was necessary and eventually discovered, followed and now has been established as the most advanced technique in biochemistry [4]. Due to its reliability, reproducibility, wide applicability and contribution in modern biomedical sciences, the technique is now dominating over most of the genomics and proteomics techniques. The fundamental rule in MS is that it ionizes individual chemical species and sorts the ions based on their mass to charge (m/z) ratio [5]. Therefore, having uniqueness for the above character, each molecule in purified form or in homogenate can be identified and quantified too. In simpler terms, a mass spectrum measures the masses within a sample by enabling them to be charged during measurement. Mass spectrometry is used in many applied and basic sciences and is applied to analyze isolated pure samples or complex mixtures in bio-medical sciences. This particular technique can be used to identify abnormal or disordered proteins/ metabolites for quantitative and qualitative analyses of metabolites under experimental or in diseased condition conditions [5].