Patent Document ID: 8635258
Application ID: 13598959
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for aligning peaks in liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) datasets from multiple runs to a common reference time frame, said method comprising: generating, for each selected LC-MS run in at least three LC-MS runs, a linear combination of a first retention time at a left-side adjacent node and a second retention time at a right-side adjacent node in a common reference time frame of said at least three LC-MS run by employing said processor device and said memory to calculate said linear combination, wherein said first retention time at said left-side adjacent node is multiplied by a first coefficient and said second retention time at said right-side adjacent node is multiplied by a second coefficient within said linear combination such that a sum of said first coefficient and said second coefficient is equal to 1, and said linear combination represents an approximation to a common retention time for a common peak across said least three LC-MS runs; generating, by employing said processor device and said memory, a linear system of equations that includes equations that represent multiple pairwise alignments of said common peak across said at least three LC-MS runs, wherein said linear system of equations is stored in said memory; and solving, by employing said processor device and said memory, said linear system of equations for said left-side adjacent nodes and said right-side adjacent nodes to generate a solution that minimizes a fitting error, wherein said fixed coefficients remain constant and, said approximation to said common retention time for said common peak is determined by said solution as calculated by said processor device.