Coupling desorption electrospray ionization with ion mobility/mass spectrometry for analysis of protein structure: Evidence for desorption of folded and denatured states

A desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) source is coupled to an ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometer for the analysis of protein structures. The results have indicated that the DESI experiment is gentler than ESI and under appropriate conditions it is possible to preserve structural information throughout the DESI process.