{
  "abstract": "Nucleic acid-metal complexes, such as DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters (DNA-Ag N ) and Ag-(I)-mediated DNA duplexes, show promise for applications ranging from biomedical imaging to bioelectronics and sensing. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a powerful tool for precisely resolving their compositions, but the data analysis procedure can be challenging and time-consuming. No general-purpose software can automatically assign compositions of nucleic acid-silver complexes, most notably for DNA-Ag N , whose masses depend on the oxidation state of the silver core. We address these challenges by developing an automated data analysis workflow for ESI-MS of nucleic acid-silver complexes. This tutorial presents the analysis workflow and introduces NucleoSpec, an open-source, web-based platform that consolidates charge state determination, constraint-based composition enumeration, isotope-pattern matching, and adduct/conjugate handling into a single browser-accessible interface. The platform is benchmarked on published molecular formulas determined by manual analysis for DNA-Ag N , xeno-nucleic acid stabilized Ag N (XNA-Ag N ), nucleic acid-Ag-(I) complexes, and chemically modified DNA-Ag N , reproducing assignments to single-proton precision (median centroid offset of 0.03 m/z) for spectra of adequate signal-to-noise. Low-signal peaks for which adjacent valence electron counts become difficult to distinguish are flagged by NucleoSpec for user inspection. By lowering the barrier to high-resolution compositional analysis and supporting integration into high-throughput pipelines, NucleoSpec addresses a key experimental bottleneck in informatics-guided design of nucleic acid-metal complexes.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.",
    "Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.",
    "Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.",
    "Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "I-Hsin Lin"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Stacy M Copp",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1788-1778"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cvgvgwt8kdyex.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1021/acsmeasuresciau.6c00178",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13693258",
  "id": "cvgvgwt8kdyex",
  "issns": [
    "2694-250X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921423",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1607|Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7203541551",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13693258?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13693258",
  "pmid": "42921423",
  "published": "2026-08-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cvgvgwt8kdyex.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:02Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42921423",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921423"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1607|Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications",
      "subfield": "physical"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A Tutorial on Automated Mass Spectral Analysis Using NucleoSpec for Compositional Assignment of Nucleic Acid-Silver Complexes and Nanoclusters.",
  "title_text": "A Tutorial on Automated Mass Spectral Analysis Using NucleoSpec for Compositional Assignment of Nucleic Acid-Silver Complexes and Nanoclusters.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:02Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cvgvgwt8kdyex",
  "venue": "ACS measurement science au",
  "versions": []
}