We’ve recently expanded our mass spectrometry and imaging capabilities with the installation of Bruker’s rapifleX® MALDI Tissuetyper®, making IRBM the first CRO in Italy to adopt this advanced MALDI-TOF/TOF platform.
Incorporating this technology into IRBM’s established integrated drug discovery workflows enhances our capacity to generate high-resolution molecular data across multiple stages of the early drug discovery pipeline, including compound screening, biomarker identification, and preclinical evaluation.
By bringing this platform in-house and connecting it directly with our medicinal and peptide chemistry, translational biology, and pharmacology teams, we’re strengthening our integrated model to deliver faster, more physiologically relevant data that help partners advance their discovery programs.
Enabling advanced compound screening and mechanism-of-action studies
This new addition supports multiple applications across early discovery:
- Label-free compound screening and hit validation: High-throughput analysis of small molecules and peptides, enabling rapid assessment of large compound sets for protein and RNA ligands discovery.
- Enzymatic assays: Direct detection of substrate-to-product conversion allows precise monitoring of enzyme activity and pathway modulation.
- Covalent binding assays: particularly valuable for characterizing covalent inhibitors, supporting mechanism-of-action studies and fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD). These data complement techniques such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and bio-layer interferometry (BLI) by validating bound species and defining binding stoichiometry.
Strengthening biomarker discovery and translational research
In biomarker and proteomics workflows, MALDI-TOF/TOF adds both depth and specificity:
- Proteomics profiling: Identification of proteins differentially expressed in healthy versus diseased samples across multiple matrices, including cells, organoids, preclinical model tissues and human clinical specimens.
- Biomarker identification and prioritization: Discovery of prognostic and predictive biomarker candidates that can be measured in accessible tissues or biofluids to support patient stratification and translational strategies.
- Post-translational modification (PTM) analysis: Characterization of key PTMs such as phosphorylation (Ser/Thr/Tyr), glycosylation, acetylation, methylation, ubiquitination/SUMOylation and disulfide bonds, helping to connect molecular mechanisms with functional outcomes.
Spatial insight in preclinical studies with mass spectrometry imaging (MSI)
The instrument also enables MALDI imaging, providing spatially resolved molecular information directly from tissue sections without the need for labels or antibodies:
- Drug distribution: Label-free visualization of drug and metabolite localization in tissues, such as liver, kidney or cardiac tissue, supports assessment of tissue penetration, off-target accumulation and molecular signatures of toxicity.
- Tissue-level pharmacodynamics: Detection of treatment-induced changes in lipids, peptides, proteins and metabolites allows evaluation of efficacy and toxicity biomarkers. By correlating compound exposure with molecular effects in a spatial context, MALDI imaging helps build a more complete picture of pharmacology in vivo.
Integrated data to accelerate drug discovery
By embedding MALDI-TOF/TOF and MS imaging into IRBM’s integrated drug discovery engine, our scientists can connect compound properties, target engagement, biomarker modulation and tissue-level effects within a single, coherent framework.
For partners investigating biodistribution in tissue, exploring mechanism of action, or advancing biomarker-driven strategies, these new capabilities provide richer data to de-risk decisions and move programs forward more efficiently.