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Mobilion, Agilent Partner to Bring SLIM Ion Mobility to Mass Spec

NEW YORK – Ion mobility firm Mobilion said yesterday that it is partnering with Agilent to implement its SLIM (structures for lossless ion manipulation) ion mobility system on Agilent's QTOF mass spectrometers.

This is the first partnership with a mass spec vendor that Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania-based Mobilion has announced. The companies said that a beta model of the system will be available in 2020 with a broad commercial launch planned for 2021.

Developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the SLIM technology extends ion mobility path lengths beyond those allowed by conventional ion mobility spectrometry systems, potentially enabling much more extensive separations, which could aid in a range of mass spec-based research areas, including characterization of biologic drugs and protein biomarker discovery.

"We are excited to be commercializing our first product with a top-tier industry partner such as Agilent to deliver incredibly powerful, truly unprecedented analysis to researchers," Mobilion CEO Melissa Sherman said in a statement. "We believe that in providing a solution to researchers to efficiently investigate biological molecules at a level that is unachievable with existing instruments, Mobilion will revolutionize the prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of disease."

"Agilent’s partnerships with thought leaders in ion mobility and mass spectrometry have enabled us to offer advanced ion mobility technology to our customers,” said Bryan Miller, senior director for mass spectrometry R&D at Agilent. "Our collaboration with Mobilion is the next chapter, and we are excited to be working with them to integrate the unprecedented capabilities of SLIM ion mobility separation with our high-performance QTOF MS systems."

Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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