A method of mass spectrometry is disclosed wherein a gas collision cell is
repeatedly switched between a fragmentation and a non-fragmentation mode.
Parent ions from a first sample are passed through the collision cell and
parent ion mass spectra and fragmentation ion mass spectra are obtained.
Parent ions from a second sample are then passed through the collision
cell and a second set of parent ion mass spectra and fragmentation ion
mass spectra are obtained. The mass spectra are then compared and if
either certain parent ions or certain fragmentation ions in the two
samples are expressed differently then further analysis is performed to
seek to identify the ions which are expressed differently in the two
different samples.