To finish off our first week at Integrated Pain Solutions, Dr. Sean and Dr. Pandi walked us through the process of interpreting mass spectra to determine the relative concentrations of various cannabinoid compounds. Firstly, the LCMS machine we learned about yesterday produces a page of integrals for each compound to show much of each was in each sample:
From that, Dr. Sean exports the file to excel, where the actual milligrams of each compound in the sample can be more accurately measured, and the concentrations can be calculated:
Finally, he compared the expected rate of travel through the chromatography part of the machine to what it actually was. He then adjusted the expected time accordingly to match what the actual time was. This is a sort of continuous adjustment that they make to the LCMS machine to make sure that it stays accurate over time. From the data we collected today, we confirmed that the process Dr. Pandi carried out on the initial sample didn’t significantly change its chemical composition, as there were still many cannabinoids present in the final solution.