Rapid analytical characterization of high-throughput chemistry screens utilizing desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A detailed overview of a newly developed method for the analysis and processing of chemical library screens is reported. Integration of a DESI 2D source in a pharmaceutical drug discovery setting is accomplished by utilizing this platform on multiple reaction screens sets including Buchwald and Suzuki couplings, fluorination chemistry, and monomer reactions. Custom software developed for the DESI data analysis enables automated data processing, review and favorable comparisons with UPLC results. The new method represents a 25-fold reduction in reaction screening sets analysis time over conventional state of the art UPLC/MS, with the ability to scale as reaction sets increase in size. In addition to all of the speed and throughput improvements, DESI is very efficient, requiring only 500 nL of sample volume for testing and uses only a few mL of solvent a day.