Elemental tagging in inorganic mass spectrometric bioanalysis

Abstract

We want to point out that new developments seen in proteomics are very similar to a well-established trend in the analytical applications of inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in general and in particular in the area of speciation studies. The most important aspect of ICP-MS is its multielement capability which can be used for ultra-trace determination of elements in any matrix. The highest accuracy was achieved only when ICP-MS was used as a definitive method in combination with isotope dilution techniques, a method which was strongly promoted and supported by our friend Klaus G. Heumann. It can be expected that his pioneering work related to species-specific and species-unspecific isotope dilution analysis [1–5] will form one important aspect in future ICP-MS applications in quantitative life sciences.