The exhibit hall at the 74th Annual Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in San Diego served as the backdrop for a wave of instrument and software announcements aimed squarely at the analytical demands of drug discovery and biopharmaceutical development. Two major launches — one centered on expanding Orbitrap platform capabilities, the other on advances in trapped ion mobility-based proteomics and proteoform analysis — reflected the field's continued push toward deeper biological characterization, higher throughput, and more integrated computational workflows.
Orbitrap expands across the development pipeline
Thermo Fisher Scientific announced three new Orbitrap mass spectrometry platforms at ASMS 2026, alongside a suite of AI-enabled software tools and integrated workflows spanning research, biopharmaceutical development, and applied testing.
For research applications, the company introduced the Orbitrap Tribrid Apex mass spectrometer, described in a press release as the company's most versatile and highest-performing Orbitrap Tribrid platform. The system incorporates three mass analyzers, an infrared laser option for alternative fragmentation, and a Direct Mass Technology mode. Complementary software releases included Proteoform Studio for top-down proteomics workflows, Proteome Discoverer 3.4 for managing larger proteomics datasets, and the acquisitions of MSAID — an AI-driven proteomics and machine learning software company — and Proteinaceous, which adds top-down and native mass spectrometry bioinformatics capabilities.
For biopharmaceutical development, the company unveiled the Orbitrap Excedion mass spectrometer, a platform designed for applications including drug metabolism studies, oligonucleotide analysis, and peptide analysis. The system features an enhanced dynamic range mode described as detecting three to five times more compounds in complex samples. Notably, the company announced that existing users will be able to upgrade to the Excedion Pro configuration without replacing their instrument.
Supporting workflow components introduced alongside the platform included a metal-free UHPLC system engineered for sensitive biological molecules including short oligonucleotides, reversed-phase columns purpose-built for oligonucleotide, mRNA, and protein therapeutic analysis, and an oligonucleotide sample preparation kit designed to streamline bioanalysis workflows. For later-stage regulated bioanalysis and quality control applications, the company also showcased the TSQ Certis triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, which the press release noted measures samples 15 percent faster and requires maintenance less than half as frequently as previous systems in complex matrices such as plasma.
Bruker advances proteoform analysis and high-throughput proteomics
Bruker's ASMS 2026 announcements centered on advances in trapped ion mobility-based platforms, with a particular emphasis on proteoform characterization, depth of proteome coverage, and the integration of top-down and native mass spectrometry capabilities into biopharma workflows.
The company announced major performance advances for its timsUltra AIP platform, reporting identification and label-free quantification of more than 10,000 proteins in cell line samples and more than 6,500 proteins at 500 samples per day using updated instrument configurations, new razor-PASEF acquisition methods, and Spectronaut 21 software.
In a press release, researchers at University Hospital Tübingen and the University of Freiburg described applying the platform to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue biopsies in a translational oncology context, quantifying more than 10,000 proteins across clinical samples to identify pathway activity and tumor-specific resistance programs in cases where genomic analysis was inconclusive.
For top-down and native mass spectrometry, the company highlighted the timsOmni platform, which combines trapped ion mobility with trapped electron dissociation (ExD) fragmentation. An argon collision gas option was announced, described as improving collision-induced dissociation sensitivity by four-fold for biomolecules. A new partnership with Integrated Protein Technologies was also announced, interfacing that company's SampleStream automated buffer exchange system directly with the timsOmni platform to enable high-throughput intact and top-down biotherapeutic characterization workflows. In a press release, Phil Compton, CEO of Integrated Protein Technologies, said the combination was intended to make high-performance intact and top-down workflows more broadly accessible.
On the software side, Bruker announced releases of OmniScape 2027, ProteoScape 2027, and GlycoScape 2027. OmniScape 2027 includes LYRA, a de novo sequencing algorithm for top-down spectra that the company described as enabling ultrafast post-translational modification (PTM) screening across proteoform space. New glycoproteomics workflows incorporating complementary fragmentation modes were also announced, with MSFragger compatibility added for timsOmni trapped ExD acquisitions.
In a press release, Alexey Nesvizhskii of the University of Michigan noted that the integration brings peptide-backbone sequencing and glycan-informative fragmentation into a single framework. A transformer neural network-based de novo peptide sequencing model called tims-Casanovo, developed in collaboration with academic groups at the University of Washington, Helmholtz Munich, and the University of Antwerp, was also described, with William Noble of the University of Washington noting in a press release that expanded training datasets improve its performance across applications including immunopeptidomics and antibody characterization.
The company also announced the timsMRMS, a platform combining trapped ion mobility separation with magnetic resonance mass spectrometry at resolving powers of one million to 10 million, targeting applications in energy industry research including petroleomics and dissolved organic matter characterization.
Shared directions
Taken together, the two sets of announcements at ASMS 2026 reflected several converging priorities in mass spectrometry instrument development. Both companies emphasized deeper coverage of complex proteomes, with high-throughput workflows capable of identifying proteins in the thousands. Both highlighted expanding capabilities for biotherapeutic characterization — particularly for complex modalities including oligonucleotides, mRNA therapeutics, glycoproteins, and antibodies — as a central development direction. And both integrated AI-driven software as a core component of their platform expansions, positioning computational tools not as add-ons but as necessary infrastructure for translating instrument performance into actionable biological and analytical conclusions.
The depth of biopharma-oriented content at ASMS 2026 more broadly — with dedicated oral sessions on biotherapeutic characterization, ADC pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity assessment alongside instrument launches aligned to the same workflows — underscored how central mass spectrometry has become to the analytical infrastructure supporting biologics development across the pipeline.
