High throughput analysis is increasingly relevant in both industry and academia, with applications reaching from enzymology and drug discovery to organic reaction optimization and diagnostics. Currently, chromatography-free mass spectrometry (MS) techniques have acquired an important role in this field due to their inherent speed, versatility, and chemical specificity. Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) MS is one of these approaches, which allows for direct analysis of complex samples in the ambient environment, with throughputs better than 1 sample per second and no need for sample treatment. Here we assess the evolution of the high throughput DESI-MS analytical performance from the early DESI source developed by Prosolia Inc. to the recently commercialized version of Waters Corporation. The evaluation was carried out through both quantitative and qualitative analysis of biologically relevant compounds including metabolites, peptides, lipids and pharmaceuticals. Our results indicate that both platforms are successful at the direct analysis of these species even from complex matrices such as bioassay buffers. However, the newest iteration of the DESI stage, when combined with a quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-ToF) instrument, provides higher sensitivity (1-3 orders of magnitude lower limits of detection) and reproducibility (ca. 10% average reduction in coefficients of variation for quantitation using an internal standard). The cases explored in this study also showcase the broad applicability of high throughput DESI-MS for bioanalysis and quality control.

高通量分析在工业界和学术界都越来越重要，其应用范围从酶学和药物发现到有机反应优化和诊断。目前，无色谱质谱 (MS) 技术由于其固有的速度、多功能性和化学特异性，已在该领域发挥重要作用。解吸电喷雾电离 (DESI) MS 是其中一种方法，它允许直接分析周围环境中的复杂样品，吞吐量优于每秒 1 个样品，无需样品处理。在这里，我们评估了从 Prosolia Inc. 开发的早期 DESI 源到沃特世公司最近商业化版本的高通量 DESI-MS 分析性能的演变。评估是通过对生物相关化合物（包括代谢物、肽、脂质和药物）的定量和定性分析进行的。我们的结果表明，即使是生物测定缓冲液等复杂基质，这两个平台也能成功地直接分析这些物种。然而，DESI 阶段的最新迭代与四极杆飞行时间 (Q-ToF) 仪器结合使用时，可提供更高的灵敏度（检测下限 1-3 个数量级）和重现性（平均约 10%）减少使用内标进行定量的变异系数）。本研究中探讨的案例还展示了高通量 DESI-MS 在生物分析和质量控制方面的广泛适用性。