The progress of modern lipidomics has been greatly accelerated by the development of spectrometric methods in general and soft ionization techniques for mass spectrometry such as electrospray ionization (ESI), desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) in particular. "Soft" ionization
does not cause extensive fragmentation, so that comprehensive detection of an entire range of lipids within a complex mixture can be correlated to experimental conditions or disease state. In addition, the technique of atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) has become increasingly popular for the analysis of nonpolar lipids.