Patent ID: 11879897
Assignee: THERMO FINNIGAN LLC
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method of operating a mass spectrometer to analyze a biological sample, comprising:
introducing peptide ions generated from the biological sample into the mass spectrometer during an introduction period;
fragmenting the peptide ions to form product ions;
mass analyzing the product ions to acquire a product ion spectrum; and
during the introduction period, using a programmed controller to perform:
executing a search of a mass spectral database to attempt to identify a candidate peptide in the mass spectral database that matches the product ion spectrum, the mass spectral database containing product mass spectral information for candidate peptides,
while executing the search of the mass spectral database, monitoring an elapsed search time,
upon identification of the candidate peptide that matches the product ion spectrum prior to the elapsed search time reaching a first maximum value that is shorter than the introduction period, causing the mass spectrometer to perform an action based on the identification, and
terminating the search when the elapsed search time reaches the first maximum value.