Suggest a MALDI-TOF Instrument Manufacturer

[wkelln]

I have limited experience in the past with MALDI-TOF. The instrument I used was a Bruker Autoflex.

I am interested in purchasing a new instrument. At the least, what I need is to get accurate masses for both large whole proteins as well as peptides, and do mass fingerprinting. Beyond that, any added capabilities (sequencing) will make the instrument all the more useable to me and others in the future.

So, as I said I am familiar with Bruker, and was reasonably pleased with their instrument. However, if anyone is willing to suggest any other manufacturer that you are particularly happy with, that is what I am looking for.

Please suggest a basic machine, and also what you would get if you had an unlimited budget.

Thanks!

[trypsin]

I worked with the 4800 plus MALDI TOF/TOF Analyzer from AB/MDS SCIEX. I think the instrument was good for analyzing mass of small and large proteins (7-60 kDa). For analyzing small peptides and mass fingerprinting a lot people are using LC-ESI-MS/MS. The choice of the analytic method depends on the mass of your analyte/sample. But I am not an expert in this field. I 've done protein analytics for 3 years.