Advancing Drug Metabolite Characterization with Next-Generation Orbitrap HRAM Mass Spectrometry

Accurate characterization of drug metabolites is critical to drug discovery and development, but labile metabolites and emerging peptide therapeutics can present significant analytical challenges. In-source fragmentation may obscure important small-molecule biotransformations, while complex peptide drugs require high sensitivity to detect and characterize low-abundance metabolites in biological matrices.

Join experts from AbbVie and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to explore how next-generation Orbitrap™ high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) mass spectrometry can help address these challenges. Through applications involving labile small-molecule metabolites and semaglutide, the speakers will examine strategies for optimizing source conditions, balancing metabolite integrity with sensitivity, and extending HRAM workflows to support both metabolite identification and quantitative analysis.

The webinar will also highlight cross-platform studies of Orbitrap mass spectrometers, providing practical insights into how advances in instrument design, acquisition strategies, and method optimization can improve confidence in drug metabolite characterization and quantification.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand key analytical challenges in characterizing labile small-molecule metabolites and complex peptide therapeutics, including in-source fragmentation and low-abundance metabolite detection.
• Learn how source optimization and next-generation Orbitrap HRAM mass spectrometry can improve metabolite integrity, sensitivity, and confidence in characterization
• Explore HRAM LC-MS strategies that integrate comprehensive metabolite identification with sensitive intact drug quantification across diverse drug metabolism studies.

Presenter: Alena Joignant, PhD (Senior Scientist, AbbVie)

Alena Joignant is a Senior Scientist in AbbVie’s Biotransformation and Disposition group, where her work focuses on metabolite identification for First-in-Human and ADME studies. Her current collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific explores mass spectrometry approaches for improving the detection and characterization of labile small-molecule drug metabolites. She received her PhD from North Carolina State University, where she researched sampling innovations for IR-MALDESI mass spectrometry imaging and high-throughput screening.

Presenter: Aaron Lopes (Senior Research Engineer, MIT)

Aaron Lopes is the core director for the bioanalytics platform at MIT, managing a for-service analytical lab which provides state-of-the-art resources for chromatography and mass spectrometry. Aaron has worked on GLP-1 receptor agonists for over a decade, developing many cGMP quality assays and DMPK bioanalytical assays for semaglutide and tirzepatide. Through collaborations with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lily, his efforts have aided in the successful commercialization of oral GLP-1 medications.