I would like to perform MALDI-TOF on raw sputum samples, but am slightly unsure about whether I should process the samples first, or which matrix would give the best results. Any help greatly appreciated.
First off, I haven't done this, but I would *guess* you'll need some sort of clean-up. What are you interesting in looking at, peptides, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates? What size compounds? ie. are you using the MALDI-TOF in linear or reflectron mode, or both? All of these will affect the matrix you ultimately choose. As for which matrix, there are dozens, you need to decide what you want to detect and go from there. If you have access to DESI it might be worth a try on the raw sample.
Good luck
Many thanks Peter and Niklas for your answers. I am mainly interested in carbohydrates so I have decided to use DHB.
Hi Charlie Brilliant:
I have seen that you want to detect carbohydrates in the raw sputum samples with MALDI-MS, whether your interest is glucose or other carbohydrate? DHB is suitable for carbohydrate detection by MALDI, but it gives many interferes in the small molecule range(
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