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

Claim 12:
13. Apparatus for analyzing a biological sample, comprising:
a separation device configured to temporally separate the biological sample into components;
an ionization source configured to receive a component of the biological sample and generate peptide ions from the component during an introduction period;
a fragmentation device configured to fragment the peptide ions to form product ions;
a mass analyzer configured to analyze the product ions to produce a product ion spectrum; and
a controller programmed with instructions for:
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.