Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced the acquisition of e-MSion, an early-stage company behind the innovative electron capture dissociation (ECD) technology known as the ExD cell.

The ExD cell is a compact device for mass spectrometers that enables biological researchers to develop biotherapeutic products more quickly to treat disease. This is done by more comprehensively and precisely breaking the chemical bonds of complex biomolecules, enabling more complete, accurate, and detailed structural information to be obtained from them.

The ExD cell is compatible with instruments common in many labs, such as Agilent’s 6500 LC/Q-TOF series, which will make this powerful characterisation technology, previously limited to only a few high-end mass spectrometers, more accessible to a larger share of labs and biopharma researchers worldwide.

Agilent has worked closely with e-MSion for several years and has offered the company’s ExD cell technology with its 6500 series since 2019. e-MSion was founded by Oregon State University scientists, who developed the ExD cell.