Fernández Lab · Georgia Institute of Technology
Measuring the molecules of life, health & Life’s origins.
The Fernández Lab builds new mass spectrometry instrumentation and metabolomics methods to reveal the molecular basis of disease, the chemistry of our origins, and the medicines that keep the world healthy.
The Lab
A measurement-science engine for the life sciences
We invent analytical tools — and put them to work on problems that matter. From ambient ionization and ion mobility to mass spectrometry imaging and AI-driven metabolomics, our research spans the full arc from instrument design to biological and clinical discovery.
Facundo M. Fernández is Regents’ Professor and Vasser-Woolley Endowed Professor in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His group develops mass spectrometry instrumentation and metabolomics methods — spanning ambient ionization, ion mobility, and mass spectrometry imaging — to probe human health and the chemistry of life’s origins. He directs Georgia Tech’s Systems Mass Spectrometry Core, co-directs the NIH MoTrPAC chemical analysis site, and served as interim Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
Research
Where we focus
Eight intersecting directions, unified by a single idea: that better measurements unlock better science.
Ambient & Atmospheric-Pressure Ionization
New ways to turn molecules into ions — directly, in open air.
Explore →Mass Spectrometry Imaging
Mapping the molecular landscape of tissues, pixel by pixel.
Explore →Ion Mobility & Multidimensional Separations
Adding a new dimension to separate molecules by size and shape.
Explore →Metabolomics & Diagnostics
Reading the body's small-molecule signatures to detect disease earlier.
Explore →Global Health & Pharmaceutical Forensics
Detecting substandard and falsified medicines worldwide.
Explore →Selected work
Highly cited & recent
A few highlights — see the full, always-current record on Google Scholar.
Most cited
- Analytical Chemistry2011
Ambient sampling/ionization mass spectrometry: applications and current trends
- Chemical Reviews2013
Mass spectrometry: recent advances in direct open air surface sampling/ionization
- The Lancet Infectious Diseases2006
Counterfeit anti-infective drugs
Recent
- 2026Food Chemistry
Dynamic remodeling in lipophilic metabolites during Coffea canephora maturation: a lipidomic study
- 2026American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology
Sexually distinct multi-omic responses to progressive endurance exercise training in the rat lung
- 2026bioRxiv
A Multimodal Workflow for Spatial Metabolic Neighborhood Mapping in Neural Rosette Cultures
News
From the lab
TENG-MS helps elucidate marine natural products in Nav1.7 inhibitor screen
A collaborative study in the Journal of Natural Products applied triboelectric nanogenerator mass spectrometry to the structure elucidation of natural lipids in a search for Nav1.7 inhibitors from marine extracts.
Machine learning predicts electrospray ionization response for semi-quantitative lipidomics
Published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, this work develops machine-learning models to predict electrospray ionization sensitivity — a step toward more quantitative lipidomics.
Join us
Build the future of measurement science
We welcome curious, driven graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates from chemistry, engineering, biology, and computation. If you want to invent instruments and discover biology, we want to hear from you.