As you know, the world is made up of trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of atoms—the basic building block of all matter in the universe! By extension, that means all of our pharmaceutical products are made up of atoms, which is not a shocker, but how do we know which ones? And when analyzing our products, how do we know if atoms are there that shouldn’t be? To answer that question, we first need to understand some fundamental aspects of atoms!
What is Mass Spectrometry?
Fun Fact: It’s estimated that there are ~1080 atoms in the universe! That is 10 followed by 80 zeroes, or 10 quadrillion vigintillion atoms!
Atomic Mass
An element’s Atomic Mass is the total mass of the atom’s protons and neutrons, so it helps show how heavy the atom is. The number of protons is also identified by the Atomic Number.
Magnetism
In nature, there are four fundamental forces that dictate interactions, ranging from holding atomic nuclei together to how galaxies orbit. One of these forces is Magnetism—the force that can attract or repel certain materials and is created by moving electric charges. At the atomic level, it comes from the motion of electrons and their spin. This leads atoms to having a positive and negative pole, similar to how you’d find a North pole and South pole on a physical magnet!
Ionization
Ionization is the process of turning an atom into an ion by adding or removing electrons. This changes the atom’s electrical charge to either positive (cation) or negative (anion). Ionization can be accomplished through some form of electromagnetic radiation, like X-rays and gamma rays, colliding with the atom, causing electrons to be released or trapped!
Fun Fact: Auroras, like the Northern Lights, occur when light from the sun collides with atoms in the atmosphere and ionizing them, causing them to emit light!
Controlling Particle Flight!
Now that we’ve been refreshed on magnetism, ionization, and ions, what’s next? Naturally, finding a way to use magnetism to control the ions! By manipulating magnetic fields, an ions path through space can be fine tuned and controlled such that the particle follows a specific path. This is the principle that led to the development of particle accelerators like the Fermi National Accelerator Lab (FermiLab) in Illinois, USA and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
As charged particles are sent into the accelerator, magnetic fields are tuned such that the flight path of the particle can be controlled such that the particle doesn’t collide with anything or lose energy. These accelerators are extremely large (see left) as the speed of these particles is so high such that a shallow curve is needed – very similar to a racetrack for racing!
Mass Spectrometry and Flying Ions
So, how do particle accelerators have anything to do with AbbVie and the products we make? While AbbVie’s R&D scientists may not be sending particles through a 2 mile (3.3km) circumference accelerator, the same principles are used within analytical chemistry and provide crucial insights into the products we’re making, in both discovery and commercial production!
What is Mass Spectrometry?
In general, mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical tool used to find out what a sample is made of and how much of each component is in the sample. This is accomplished by manipulating the charge of ions along with magnetic fields to direct a beam of ions into detectors and analyze the content. This is done in 3 main steps:
Fun Fact: This is just one type of MS set up—there are numerous kinds!
Mass Spectrometry at AbbVie
Within AbbVie’s analytical capabilities, mass spectrometry is certainly leveraged! It’s uses can range from identifying quantities of elemental impurities (like Iron and Nickel) within a product to helping identify both molecular structure and quantity of that molecule. This is extremely useful for drug discovery and development, but then is further leveraged as part of release testing of commercial products. The uses don’t just stop with the product, it can be used for EHS purposes too! Along with other analytical methods, mass spectrometry is a mainstay in the development and supply of our medicines to our patients!
Even More Uses!
While mass spectrometry on its own is powerful, combining it with other analytical techniques further refines its power! A great example of this is using chromatography to separate out your sample into its individual components before sending it to the MS unit.