The basics of mass spectrometry in the twenty-first century

Enormous advances in our understanding of the chemistry underlying life processes have identified new targets for therapeutic agents. The discovery of effective therapeutics to address these targets is often accomplished through parallel synthetic and screening efforts. In almost all cases, what has enabled target identification and allowed parallel approaches to drug discovery to be effective are the development of either new analytical tools or the improvement of currently existing ones. Among these tools, mass spectrometry has evolved to become an irreplaceable technique in the analysis of biologically related molecules. This article will guide researchers in drug discovery through the basic principles of mass spectrometry.