rapifleX MALDI-TOF

The Bruker rapifleX is a MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometer built around a 10 kHz scanning smartbeam 3D laser, which Bruker states gives throughput up to 20 times faster than traditional MALDI-TOF systems.

Revolution’s role is to start a run and to identify what is on the target — which, for MALDI, is the part that matters.

At a glance

Laser	10 kHz scanning smartbeam 3D
Throughput	Up to 20× faster than traditional MALDI-TOF
Sample rate	Approximately 0.3 seconds per sample
High-throughput screening	Up to 10 samples per second on the rapifleX MPP
Revolution control	Start an automatic run; extend the stage

Bruker describes the 10 kHz scanning laser as enabling mass-spec imaging with improved spatial resolution, image contrast and quality — so the same instrument serves both imaging and high-throughput screening. Which of those your system is configured for determines what a run means.

Starting a run

The run operation takes more than a method name, and each parameter earns its place:

Parameter	What it identifies
Target barcode	The MALDI target the samples are spotted on
Target entity id	The target’s identity in the wider system
Adapter barcode	The adapter holding the target
Assay plate barcodes	The plates whose samples were spotted onto that target — a list
Plate ID format	How plate identifiers are formatted
Run id	The identifier for this run
Timeout	How long to allow the run, in seconds

This is the shape of MALDI sample tracking. Samples are transferred from one or more assay plates onto one target, so the run has to record which plates contributed — otherwise a spectrum cannot be traced back to the well it came from.

Get the assay plate list right. It is the only link between a spot on the target and the sample that produced it, and nothing downstream can reconstruct it if the list is wrong or incomplete.

Supported methods

• Start automatic run — begin a run with the target, adapter, assay plates and run identity above
• Extend stage — extend the stage so a robot can load or unload the target

A transfer to this instrument is a sequence: extend the stage, place the target, then start the run.

Integration

Revolution talks to the rapifleX over the network, addressing it by URL.

Prerequisites

• The instrument must be reachable from the Revolution host at the configured URL.
• Acquisition methods must already be set up in Bruker’s own software.
• Target and adapter barcodes must be readable, and the assay plate barcodes known to the schedule before the run starts.
• The stage must be free to extend, clear of the robot’s approach path.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
URL	Address of the instrument’s service

Note that the driver extends its own communication timeout to cover the run duration you pass, so a long acquisition does not fail as a communications timeout part-way through.

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.