Fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry history

Early in the history of mass spectrometry (MS), large biomolecules were not analyzed because efficient methods to transport these molecules into the gas phase were unknown. Degradation typically occurred during vaporization of these nonvolatile molecules so that electron ionization of the intact molecular ion was not possible. Ionization by fast atom bombardment (FAB), field desorption (FD), secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS), and plasma desorption (PD)" from the radioactive decay of Cf finally made the ionization and analysis of peptides possible. These latter techniques, although still used today, are not as popular as electrospray... 

The mass spectrometry (MS) of nudeic acids (NAs) has a history similar to that of proteins and other biomolecules. Although earlier work had been made possible by field desorption and fast atom bombardment (FAB) and other ionization techniques, the field did not really take off until the soft ionization techniques of electrospray ionization (ESI) [1] and MALDI [2] became available. Even with the benefits of these new ionization techniques, however, the analysis of NAs turned out to be substantially more difficult than that of proteins and, as a result, MS-based technologies are not nearly as prominent in genetics and genomics as they are in proteomics. The widespread utilization of MS for NA analysis has been further limited by the competition of powerful techniques that can rely on amplification, hybridization, and fluorescence detection. MALDI-MS has found its place in these fields only more recently, and its performance must consistently be measured against that of the competing techniques in any given analytical task. 

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