MALDI- or ESI? Pros and cons for protein and small molecules

Mass spectrometry has become a very popular technique in the analytical characterization of elements and molecules that range from inorganic, organic, and biological species. This popularity has soared in the past 15 years primarily through the development of ionization sources that can easily ionize large organic and biological molecules, intact and/or with controlled fragmentation. The two primary ionization mechanisms responsible for this capability are Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) and Electrospray Ionization (ESI). The development of the latter resulted in the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Engineering for John Fenn. This capability has presented a new paradigm allowing the field of proteomics to break through, with the characterization of major fractions of the proteins in a biological cell. The sensitivity, specificity, and structural characterization of available today using these techniques will be discussed with some examples in the characterization of both large and small molecules and relative merits of each technology.