Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) announced the launch of the Xevo TQ Absolute XR IVD Mass Spectrometer at the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) 2026 Annual Meeting, expanding its MassTrak IVD System portfolio for clinical laboratory applications.

According to Waters, the new system delivers up to five times greater sensitivity compared to the next two most sensitive IVD-compliant tandem quadrupole instruments currently available — the Waters Xevo TQ-XS IVD and the SCIEX 6500 IVD. The company said the system enables lower limits of detection and quantification of analytes from smaller sample volumes, targeting applications including low-level estradiol testing for women's health, hormone-related cancer assessment, and hair toxicology.

The system features a StepWave XR Ion Guide, which Waters claims maintains ion ratio consistency for up to six times longer compared with its predecessor, the Xevo TQ Absolute IVD System. That comparison was based on an internal experiment analyzing more than 12,000 samples of pesticides in fish feed matrix.

The MassTrak LC-MS/MS IVD System pairs the Xevo TQ Absolute XR Mass Spectrometer with the ACQUITY UPLC I-Class PLUS System and is available to order.

Jianqing Bennett, Senior Vice President of Waters Advanced Diagnostics, said the system is intended to reduce laboratory downtime and improve productivity. James Nutt, Head of Laboratory Operations at Cansford Laboratories, said the system improves signal stability and sensitivity, which is important when working near decision cut-offs in complex matrices such as human hair.