Maximum efficiency is essential for analytical laboratories that are constantly challenged to increase throughput and deliver results to research chemists in pharmaceutical discovery.

Waters Open Access systems allow chemists to simply walk up to an LC/MS system, log in their sample, place the sample in the instrument as instructed, and walk away to retrieve results at their desk by email or printout – with minimal wait time.

ACQUITY UPLC and UPLC/MS systems and software enable versatile and open operation for medicinal chemistry labs, with easy-to-use instruments, a user-friendly software interface, and fast, robust analyses using UV or MS for nominal and exact mass measurements.

System management is just as simple. Online, the central administrator can remotely define system users and their privileges for operating instruments across the network.

Waters Open Access systems for LC/MS are built around the OpenLynx Open Access Application Manager, which brings the power of chromatography and mass spectrometry to chemists who are not analytical instrumentation specialists.

One such system is the ACQUITY SQD, which leverages the power of UPLC’s fast, sensitive, and high resolution separations as well as single quadrupole mass detection. With a UPLC Column Manager, the system can include up to four columns for multiple screening methods. OpenLynx and the system’s remote monitoring and diagnostic features assure medicinal chemistry lab managers of high instrument uptime, system robustness, and maintenance predictability.

For Open Access labs that need to further extend productivity and capacity, the UPLC Open Architecture System includes a flatbed 2777-style Sample Manager, an industry standard autosampler that is familiar to chemists who prefer to add their sample vials or well plates to an open bed rather than having to access a sample rack position inside a system. With an EverFlow Valve, the system reliably operates at high pressures over an extended lifetime.

Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry has become the standard technique for confirming the identity and purity of drug discovery compounds to support high throughput screening (HTS), optimization, and physicochemical property profiling of these compounds. In medicinal chemistry labs, this is an iterative process and requires rapid turnaround times. High throughput Open Access systems, paired with easy-to-use software, enable these labs to accomplish more in less time.

• Screening: By combining the speed of the ACQUITY UPLC^® System with the capacity of its Sample Organizer, labs can nearly quadruple the screening throughput, without sacrificing data quality
• Confirmation: With the OpenLynx™ Open Access interface, medicinal chemists can confirm the elemental composition of compounds with minimal instrument training. The software’s embedded i-Fit™ algorithm simplifies final exact mass determination by reducing the number of possible elemental formulas, and delivers this information to the analyst in a pdf report
• Purification: High resolution LC/MS data can be used in an open access environment to tailor the purification method to maintain the analytical resolution. By logging in samples just once, medicinal chemists were able to get a purified product along with reports showing the initial and final purities
• Compounds profiling: The determination of physciochemical properties is simplified with the use of the ACQUTIY UPLC System with a Sample Organizer and the ProfileLynx™ Application Manager, which automated the calculations of solubility, logP, metabolic stability, and CHI. The combination of the Column Manager and QuanOptimize™ facilitated the development of optimal MS/MS method
• Optimization: By using a walk-up UPLC/MS system, chemists are able to quickly and easily monitor their reactions, noting the relative amounts of starting materials and products. They are also able to note the formation of any side products and make the necessary alterations to minimize these in their reaction protocol

To minimize the learning curve for instrument operation, OpenLynx™ Open Access leads chemists through sample submission, method selection, and reporting options. The system is maintained by a system administrator who predefines the system configuration, available experimental methods, processing criteria, and reporting options.

By allowing chemists to submit their own samples, routine analyses can be performed more efficiently, leaving instrumentation experts more time to focus on advanced analyses.

OpenLynx Open Access allows chemists to walk up to a terminal and log in samples onto an instrument, while inputting the minimum of information needed for the sample run. OpenLynx Open Access allows the system administrator to maintain control over the open access systems and to track the performance of each system. It also facilitates batch processing and reporting of results.

OpenLynx Open Access software offers comprehensive capabilities:

• Simplified sample submission process – A single page login or a step-by-step, wizard-enabled process allows users to enter their name and sample information, and select pre-determined experimental methods and processing criteria
• Exact mass measurement utilization – For use with the appropriate mass spectrometers
• Summary report generation – Reports are automatically printed, emailed, and viewed via the OpenLynx browser, containing sample found/not found information, purity, probable elemental composition (with exact mass MS), chromatograms, and spectra
• Walk-up optimization of MS /MS methods and quantification of compounds of interest – Combines OpenLynx Open Access with QuanOptimize™ and QuanLynx™ Application Managers
• Advanced search – Spectral library generation and searching
• Automation of routine system administration tasks – Through the use of OpenLynx Open Access Toolkit (OA Toolkit)

OpenLynx Open Access browser report