Reference Certification and Commercialisation of “Universal” Mass Spectrometry Calibration Standards: SpheriCal

Programme(s)
H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies

Topic(s) EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 - SME instrument

Call for proposal H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1

Funding Scheme SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Grant agreement ID: 867224

Objective
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an established benchmark analytical technique to analyse biomolecules, organic molecules and synthetic polymers. MS techniques such as MALDI, IM-MS and ESI (electrospray ionization) are widely used in a range of fields such as biochemistry, clinical microbiology, medicine and drug discovery. Its prominence in these fields is due to the ability to accurately measure the absolute mass, and therefore species present, in complex analytes such as raw biological media, in high throughput experiments. For example, MALDI is used clinically to identify the nature of bacterial infection through the unique biological fingerprint of each bacteria type.

Critically, due to small and continuous changes in the various system components, data recorded exhibits a significant drift over time and between analysis runs, leading to peak miss-assignment and misleading data such as false positives. Therefore, mass spectrometers require regular calibration with a set of known standards in order to provide accurate and meaningful data. Without accurate calibration, MS instrumentation will not produce reliable data, limiting the advancement and efficiency of biomedical and clinical industries and environmental monitoring organizations. Existing calibrants have disadvantages such as time-consuming preparation, poor resolution, cover an insufficient mass range and lack Certified Reference Material (CRM) status.

To overcome these shortcomings of the existing calibrants, PF aim to commercialize a set of cutting-edge synthetic calibration standards called SpheriCal®. We are now attempting to reinforce SpheriCal® as a calibration system with CRM status – allowing access to additional lucrative markets such as clinical diagnostics and other markets with strict regulatory requirements.

Building upon successful development and validation through preliminary end-user trials, through this 6month Phase 1 project we aim to confirm the techno-economic feasibility of SpheriCal.