Imaging Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Individual Small Molecule Tissue Distributions

摘要

Within the past decade, imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has quickly gained prominence for the analysis of endogenous and exogenous analytes directly from plant, animal, and human tissue samples. More recently, research involving small molecule imaging (i.e. analytes <1 kDa), such as drug compounds and their metabolites, has proven to become a valuable application. The most notable impact can be seen in the pharmaceutical industry where the use of MALDI IMS has facilitated the rapid screening of promising lead compounds earlier in the drug discovery and development process, while at the same time eliminating inferior compounds. This presentation aims to highlight the practical aspects and advantages of IMS over more traditional imaging techniques such as whole-body autoradiography (WBA).