Flash entropy search to query all mass spectral libraries in real time

Abstract

Abstract Public repositories of metabolomics mass spectra encompass more than 1 billion entries. Full dot product or entropy similarity comparisons of a single MS/MS spectrum take more than 8 hours. Flash entropy search speeds up calculations more than 10,000 times to query 1 billion spectra in less than 2 seconds, without loss in accuracy. It benefits from using multiple threads and GPU calculations. This algorithm can fully exploit large spectral libraries with little memory overhead for any mass spectrometry laboratory.