Bruker's UltrafleXtreme

Bruker announced the nano-Advance UHPLC system for capillary and nanoflow separations applications, aimed squarely at the proteomics market. The new system, which builds on Bruker’s acquisition of Michrom, marks the first time that Bruker has offered its own liquid chromatograph. The system includes three pumps, which eliminates the need for split flow and makes the system compatible with two-dimensional LC applications. The system, which was designed to eliminate as much dead volume and gradient delay as possible, can run solvent gradients at flow rates as low as 50 nL/min. The combination of the nano-Advance with Bruker’s CaptiveSpray ion source allows more of the flow coming off the column to enter the mass spectrometer. More peptides and proteins can be analyzed in a single run, which is particularly important for low-abundance proteins. Bruker also announced an updated version of the ultrafleXtreme, its top-of-the-line MALDI time-of-flight (TOF)/TOF mass spectrometer. The instrument now incorporates a 2-kHz laser that improves the acquisition speed and spatial resolution for MALDI imaging. The system can generate multiply charged ions of intact proteins larger than 30,000 daltons.