Real-Time Instrument Control across Multiple Orbitrap Platforms through a Single Software Interface

Abstract

Applications using real-time spectral analysis and real-time instrument control have emerged in recent years as powerful tools to improve the capabilities and sensitivity of mass spectrometers. Software resources, such as the Instrument Application Programming Interface (IAPI) provided by Thermo Fisher Scientific, enable researchers to develop customized and powerful new real-time analysis and instrument control applications. The IAPI is segregated by instrument architecture, and therefore real-time applications developed for the Exploris instrument platform will not operate on the Tribrid instrument platform. We present Helios, a unified API that wraps IAPI for the Exploris and Tribrid series of instruments into a single interface with syntax synonymous to the IAPI. Helios automatically resolves differences in metadata provided by real-time data streams from either platform, and we illustrate how to send a customized instrument control command capable of operating on both Exploris and Tribrid instrument platforms. We provide two example applications that operate the same on both Exploris and Tribrid instruments from a single code base, eliminating the need to fork source trees and develop applications separately for each platform. The Helios API simplifies the development of real-time instrument control applications, while also increasing the number of instruments supported by those applications.