Patent ID: 8658355

Claim:
A method for characterizing an analyte in a sample, said methods comprising: (a) combining a plurality of reporters with the sample containing the analyte to create a mixture, wherein each reporter generates a distinct reporter peak, the plurality of reporters provide a continuous set of reporter peaks during at least a fraction of the elution range of the sample and the plurality of reporters are not present in the sample or are not predicted to be created from the sample during processing of the sample; (b) subjecting the mixture to fractionation by liquid chromatography to produce an eluate; (c) subjecting the eluate to detection by a mass spectrometric technique to generate a mass spectrometric signal from the analyte and at least one reporter co-eluting with the analyte; and (d) comparing the mass spectrometric signal from analyte to the mass spectrometric signal of at least one reporter co-eluting with the analyte.