When Moa Technology approached Agilent, its request was simple—demonstrate the use of a single quadrupole mass spectrometer to support its herbicide discovery efforts. But as the conversations deepened, it became clear Moa’s goals required a more adaptable solution.
Moa is a spinout from Oxford University and is discovering a new generation of safe, effective, and affordable herbicides to help farmers protect their harvest. Moa’s proprietary discovery platforms help its scientists find potential new modes of action faster, more reliably, and cost-effectively by screening large libraries of compounds for potential plant-growth inhibition. If any show activity, Moa then analyzes the plant's metabolic response to understand the herbicide's mode of action. The complexity and scale of this work meant Moa’s scientists needed more than a one-size-fits-all instrument.
Improving Herbicide Discovery Workflows
"When customers approach Agilent, they often come with ideas about what they need," explains Hannah Florance, a pre-sales application scientist at Agilent. "My role is to understand their samples, their goals, and where they want to go in the future. That often leads to a completely different recommendation than they expect."
Moa’s initial plan centered around high-throughput compound screening using a single quadrupole system. This included validating hundreds of 384-well plates weekly. Moa also needed to analyze plant metabolism after herbicide exposure, targeting specific metabolic pathways and generating both qualitative and quantitative data.
“Once we understood they were also considering triple quadrupole systems for targeted metabolomics, we recommended a high-resolution Q-TOF instead,” reveals Florance. “It gave Moa flexibility for both the compound library QC and metabolite analysis.”
Customizing Mass Spectrometry for Sustainable Agriculture
Transitioning to high-resolution accurate mass technology marked a pivotal shift for Moa, one that required a collaborative reset. Agilent partnered closely with the team to introduce the capabilities of time-of-flight (TOF) instruments, a significant departure from Moa’s initial expectations.
“As we introduced the Q-TOF system, we spent time together exploring how accurate mass could enhance selectivity in ways that might not have been immediately obvious,” says Florance. While triple quadrupoles are often considered the benchmark for targeted quantification, Agilent demonstrated that a Q-TOF system could deliver comparable selectivity and meet the required assay sensitivity.
The shift wasn’t just about instrumentation. Data analysis brought its own complexities, particularly in quantifying low-abundance endogenous metabolites. Although triple quads are typically used for generating standard curves, Agilent showed that high-resolution systems could handle the same targeted workflows effectively. Despite requiring two distinct analytical strategies, the Q-TOF proved versatile enough to support both.
To ensure long-term value, Moa opted for a refurbished 6530 Q-TOF, preserving the flexibility to fragment ions—an essential feature for ongoing and future research, including natural product screening.
Overcoming Analytical Challenges in Herbicide Metabolomics
Moa is now using the Q-TOF for both workflows—screening compounds and analyzing metabolites. As confidence in the system grew, the team’s ambitions expanded. “Another scientist was really keen to start doing fragmentation,” Florance notes. “It’s always exciting when the instrument becomes a launchpad for more science.”
Agilent supported this transition by providing structured training at its Measurement Suite at Imperial College and by delivering custom sessions on-site at Moa’s lab.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “Not only were we able to devise two unique workflows, but because they followed our Q-TOF recommendation, we were able to tick all their ‘desirable’ boxes,” Florance enthuses. “Moa has specific data pipelines, and now we can deliver the data in a way that integrates seamlessly with its systems.”
Empowering Next-Generation Herbicide Development
Moa Technology’s mission addresses a critical agricultural challenge—no herbicide with a novel mode of action has reached the market in over 30 years, and many crop-killing weeds have developed resistance to existing herbicides. Its work, now powered by advanced LC/MS workflows, is accelerating discovery through natural selection principles and efficient screening.
In the last year, three novel Moa herbicides have performed strongly in international field trials, offering farmers new hope for a breakthrough in enhancing crop protection, reducing environmental impact, and enabling more sustainable farming practices.
For Florance, the success of the project goes beyond technical outcomes. “Helping Moa choose the right technology enabled its team to find new and sustainable ways to revolutionize agriculture. Observing how our work supports real changes in the field is a fantastic way to see science being brought to life.”
What’s Next in High-Resolution LC/MS?
As workflows evolve, so do the tools supporting them. Florance sees artificial intelligence and ion mobility as critical to the future of mass spectrometry.
“One of the biggest challenges is handling the volume of data from high-resolution instruments,” she said. “We’re only using a fraction of what we collect. Machine learning and smarter compound extraction and annotation tools are becoming essential.”
Orthogonal separation techniques such as 2D-LC or ion mobility also offer exciting possibilities for understanding these complex samples. However, this also increases the complexity of data analysis, and Florance emphasises that the future of LC/MS lies in the integration of powerful instruments with equally powerful software.