​LC-MS is an important tool in metabolomics studies. An example of such work at the LCMS laboratory is the recently published papers by our PhD student, Keabetswe Masike who used it to study leaf blackening in Proteas.  ​​​​​​

She further optimized phenolic methods on the Synapt system with ion mobility and data-independent acquisition to study the metabolites of the plants.  Leaf blackening is a post-harvesting disorder that causes financial losses during exports.  

Ion mobility is a complementary tool to mass spectrometry that separates molecules (ions) based on their collisional cross-section. 

The link to her latest paper:

 https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c03607​