Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced new Thermo Scientific ExactFinder software for its Thermo Scientific Exactive benchtop LC-MS system powered by Orbitrap^TM technology. The new software offers food and environmental safety, clinical research and forensic toxicology laboratories a single streamlined data processing, review and reporting workflow for screening results with confidence and easy quantitation. Before the introduction of the ExactFinder software, laboratories had to use multiple mass spectrometers and data processing packages to perform targeted and unknown screening experiments.

Food and environmental safety, clinical research and forensic toxicology laboratories face increasing pressure to improve analytical throughput without compromising the quality of results. As the preferred technology for routine screening and quantitation of trace compounds, mass spectrometry requires laboratory technicians to quickly embrace it and produce results more rapidly. The list of contaminants, drugs and metabolites that laboratories screen and quantitate continues to grow. The challenge is to streamline time-consuming method development, data processing and interpretation processes while responding promptly to new testing requirements. 

When combined with the Thermo Scientific Exactive LC-MS, the ExactFinder software provides a single simplified workflow solution for routine screening and quantitation. Laboratories can process data for both targeted and unknown screening experiments without the need for multiple software packages. ExactFinder software also offers: 

• Ease of integration into laboratory workflows, with minimal user training. Data processing and reporting are automated. The Exactive LC-MS does not require compound-dependent parameter optimization, so method development is faster and simplified.  
• Highest confidence in screening results with full-scan high-resolution, accurate-mass (HR/AM) spectral data and multiple forms of compound identification integrated into a single software, including a unique HR/AM spectral library search, isotope pattern matching, and ChemSpider and other chemical database search capabilities. The HR/AM library includes more than 3000 mass spectra for more than 1000 compounds relevant to food safety and environmental testing. 
• Advanced software algorithms, including parameter-less peak detection (PPD), automated component detection, isotope pattern-matching with intelligent elemental composition calculation and reverse library search, to facilitate processing of complicated sample analyses with minimal user input.