We describe here an on-line combination of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensor with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (SAW-ESI-MS) that enables the direct detection, identification, and quantification of affinity-bound ligands from a protein-ligand complex on a biosensor chip. A trapping column was used between the SAW-biosensor and the electrospray mass spectrometer equipped with a micro-guard column, which provides simultaneous sample concentration and desalting for the mass spectrometric analysis of the dissociated ligand. First applications of the on-line SAW-ESI-MS combination include (1), differentiation of -amyloid (A) epitope peptides bound to anti-A antibodies; (2), the identification of immobilized Substance P peptide-calmodulin complex; (3), identification and quantification of the interaction of 3-nitrotyrosine-modified peptides with nitrotyrosine-specific antibodies; and (4), identification of immobilized anti-␣-synuclein-human ␣-synuclein complex. Quantitative determinations of protein-ligand complexes by SAW yielded dissociation constants (K D ) from micro-to low nanomolar sample concentrations. The on-line bioaffinity-ESI-MS combination presented here is expected to enable broad bioanalytical application to the simultaneous, label-free determination and quantification of biopolymer-ligand interactions, as diverse as antigen-antibody and lectin-carbohydrate complexes. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2010, 21, 1643-1648 [3,4]. In particular, SPR has developed into an efficient tool for analysis of biomolecular recognition processes at a biosensor surface, and has been applied to the quantification of a variety of biopolymer interactions [4,5]. A recently-explored alternative to SPR is the surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology in which the piezoelectric effect of mass differences is employed for bioaffinity detection [6 -9]. SAW is now becoming increasingly important for the study of biomacromolecular interactions due to its high detection sensitivity in dilute solutions.Advantages of SAW in comparison to classical immuno-analytical techniques are the direct and rapid determination of association/dissociation constants with small sample amounts, and without labeling approaches or recalibration for buffer changes being required [6]. While providing sensitive and accurate determinations of binding/dissociation constants (K i or K D ), a major limitation of all bioaffinity methods is the lack of direct identification of the affinity-bound ligands. In contrast, the combination of biosensor detection and mass spectrometry enables both identification and quantification of bioaffinity interactions of biopolymers. Here we describe an on-line combination of an SAW biosensor with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, SAW-ESI-MS. The on-line coupling between the SAW-sensor chip and the ESI-MS source was achieved by a incorporating a standard trapping column setup, using a six-port valve, a guard column, and a micropump system. The six-port valve interface provides both ligand concentration and an...