A mass spectrometer comprising: an ion energy filter 14 arranged and configured to filter ions according to their kinetic energy and so as to only transmit ions having a component of kinetic energy in a first dimension (z-dimension) that is within a selected range; and a multi-reflecting time of flight mass analyser or mass separator 1 having an ion accelerator 6, and two gridless ion mirrors 2 that are elongated in the first dimension (z-dimension) and configured to reflect ions multiple times in a second orthogonal dimension (x-dimension), wherein the ion accelerator 6 is arranged to receive ions from the energy filter 14 and accelerate the ions into one of the ion mirrors 2.

A laboratory test apparatus for conducting a mass spectrometry test on a blood-based sample of a cancer patient includes a classification procedure implemented in a programmed computer that generates a class label for the sample. In one form of the test, “Test 1” herein, if the sample is labelled “Bad” or equivalent the patient is predicted to exhibit primary immune resistance if they are later treated with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies in treatment of the cancer. In another configuration of the test, “Test 2” herein, the Bad class label predicts that the patient will have a poor prognosis in response to treatment by either anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies or alternative chemotherapies, such as docetaxel or pemetrexed. “Test 3” identifies patients that are likely to have a poor prognosis in response to treatment by either anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies but have improved outcomes on alternative chemotherapies. A Good class label assigned by either Test 1 or Test predicts very good outcome on anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 monotherapy.

Inside a chamber (10) evacuated by a vacuum pump, a flight tube (12) is held via a support member (11) that is of insulation. The outside of the chamber (10) is surrounded by a temperature control unit (16) including a heater. A body (10a) of the chamber (10) is made of aluminum, and a coating layer (10b) by a black nickel plating is formed on the inner wall surface of the body (10a) of the chamber (10). Due to this, the radiation factor of the chamber (10) becomes higher than that of a conventional apparatus using only aluminum, and the thermal resistance of the radiation heat transfer path between the chamber (10) and the flight tube (12) becomes low, thus improving the temperature stability of the flight tube (12). Furthermore, the time constant of the temperature change of the flight tube (12) becomes small, thus reducing the time for the flight tube (12) to stabilize to a constant temperature.

An example system includes an ion detector and a signal processing apparatus in communication with the ion detector. The ion detector is arranged to detect ions during operation of the system and to generate a signal pulse in response to the detection of an ion. The signal pulse has a peak amplitude related to at least one operational parameter of the system. The signal processing apparatus is configured to analyze signal pulses from the ion detector and determine information about the detected ions during operation of the system based on the signal pulses. The signal processing apparatus includes a discriminator circuit. The signal processing apparatus is programmed to vary a threshold of the discriminator circuit based on the at least one operational parameter of the system during operation of the system.

For an automatic adjustment of a detector voltage, a measurement of a standard sample is performed, in which a reflection voltage generator under the control of an autotuning controller applies, to a reflector, voltages which are different from those applied in a normal measurement and do not cause temporal conversion of ions. Ions having the same m/z simultaneously ejected from an ejector are dispersed in the temporal direction and reach a detector. Therefore, a plurality of low peaks corresponding to individual ions are observed on a profile spectrum. A peak-value data acquirer determines a wave-height value of each peak. A wave-height-value list creator creates a list of wave-height values. A detector voltage determiner searches for a detector voltage at which the median of the wave-height values in the wave-height-value list falls within a reference range.

Inside a chamber (10) evacuated by a vacuum pump, a flight tube (12) is held via a support member (11) that is of insulation. The outside of the chamber (10) is surrounded by a temperature control unit (16) including a heater. A body (10a) of the chamber (10) is made of aluminum, and a coating layer (10b) by a black nickel plating is formed on the inner wall surface of the body (10a) of the chamber (10). Due to this, the radiation factor of the chamber (10) becomes higher than that of a conventional apparatus using only aluminum, and the thermal resistance of the radiation heat transfer path between the chamber (10) and the flight tube (12) becomes low, thus improving the temperature stability of the flight tube (12). Furthermore, the time constant of the temperature change of the flight tube (12) becomes small, thus reducing the time for the flight tube (12) to stabilize o a constant temperature.

Each of one or more unknown compounds are separated from a sample over a separation time period. Separated compounds are ionized, producing one or more compound precursor ions for each of the unknown compounds and a plurality of background precursor ions. A precursor ion mass spectrum is measured for the combined compound and background precursor ions at each time step of a plurality of time steps spread across the separation time period, producing a plurality of precursor ion mass spectra. One or more background precursor ions are selected from the plurality of precursor ion mass spectra that have a resolving power in a range below a threshold expected resolving power. A separation time is detected for an unknown compound when a decrease in an intensity measurement of the selected background precursor ions over a time period exceeds a threshold decrease in intensity with respect to time.

The four-dimensional microscope includes a sample plate, a laser device, an aperture, an extraction plate, a hexapole, a quadrupole, a time-of-flight mass analyzer, a detector, and a device for supplying a voltage to the sample plate, the aperture, the extraction plate and the hexapole and the quadrupole. By utilizing the tunneling effect of photo-induced electrons on surfaces of semiconductor materials under laser irradiation and the electron capture ionization, mass-to-charge ratios and signal intensities of the ions resulting from the capture of interfacially transferred photo-induced electrons and subsequent photo-chemical reactions are measured, and image reconstruction is performed to obtain microscopic images. By using the present invention, not only active photo-catalytic sites of the semiconductor materials are imaged but also various structures of intermediates and products of photo-chemical reactions can be determined.

The present invention relates to a method of mass spectrometry, an apparatus adapted to perform the method and a mass spectrometer. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to a method of mass spectrometry comprising the step of associating parent and fragmentation ions from a sample by measuring the parent and fragmentation ions from two or more different areas of the sample and identifying changes in the number of parent ions between the areas in the sample, and corresponding changes in the number of fragmentation ions between the two areas.

Laboratory test apparatus for conducting a mass spectrometry test on a blood-based sample of a cancer patient includes a classification procedure implemented in a programmed computer that generates a class label. In one form of the test, Test 1, if the sample is labelled Bad or equivalent the patient is predicted to exhibit primary immune resistance if they are later treated with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies. In Test 2 the Bad class label predicts that the patient will have a poor prognosis in response to treatment by either anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies or alternative chemotherapies, such as docetaxel or pemetrexed. Test 3 identifies patients that are likely to have a poor prognosis in response to treatment by either anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapies but have improved outcomes on alternative chemotherapies. A Good class label by either Test 1 or 2 predicts very good outcome on anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 monotherapy.