Microdroplet Mass Spectrometry for In-Depth Lipidomics

In-depth lipidomics remains analytically challenging due to the structural complexity of lipids, the prevalence of isomeric species, and the difficulty of achieving accurate quantification across diverse lipid classes. In this talk, I will talk about a suite of microdroplet mass spectrometry approaches that leverage ultrafast chemical reactions occurring within charged microdroplets generated directly at the ion source. These in-situ microdroplet derivatization strategies enable rapid and selective structural interrogation of lipids, allowing resolution and characterization of positional, geometric, and sn-isomers with minimal sample handling. In parallel, we introduce a lipid mass-tagging strategy that incorporates isotopically encoded reagents into lipids, enabling accurate and robust relative quantification across complex lipidomes.