Eleven shades of PASEF

Abstract

Introduction: The introduction of trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) in combination with fast high-resolution time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry to the proteomics field led to a jump in protein identifications and quantifications, as well as a lowering of the limit of detection for proteins from biological samples. Parallel Accumulation-Serial Fragmentation (PASEF) is a driving force for this development and has been adapted to discovery as well as targeted proteomics.

Areas covered: Over the last decade, the PASEF concept has been optimized and led to the implementation of eleven new measurement techniques. In this review, we describe all currently described PASEF measurement techniques and their application to clinical proteomics. Literature was searched using PubMed and Google Scholar search engines.

Expert opinion: The use of a dual TIMS tunnel has revolutionized the depth and the speed of proteomics measurements. Currently, we witness how this technique is pushing clinical proteomics forward.

Keywords: DIA; PASEF; Parallel Accumulation-Serial Fragmentation; Proteomics; TIMS-TOF; ion mobility; targeted proteomics.