IMAGING MASS SPECTROMETRTY USING SYNAPT XS

Significance of DESI-MS Imaging

Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) imaging has emerged as a powerful tool for molecular mapping directly from tissue and surface samples under ambient conditions. Its ability to profile lipids and small molecules with minimal preparation complements established approaches such as MALDI, enabling broader coverage of chemical species and accelerating workflows in pharmaceutical research, biomarker discovery, and diagnostic imaging.

Study Objectives and Overview

This work presents the integration of DESI-MS imaging with the SYNAPT XS mass spectrometer and HDI imaging software to deliver multidimensional molecular maps. The goals include demonstrating enhanced selectivity and sensitivity for low-molecular-weight compounds, streamlined data acquisition and analysis, and seamless overlay of chemical and optical information.

Methodology and Instrumentation

The imaging platform combines:

• DESI ambient ionization: direct analysis with minimal sample pretreatment and high throughput.
• SYNAPT XS mass spectrometer: high resolution, robust ion mobility separation, and reproducible performance across varying sample topography.
• Ion mobility techniques: SONAR (scanning quadrupole isolation) and HDMSE (ion mobility-enabled data independent acquisition) for enhanced selectivity and collision cross-section (CCS) measurement.
• HDI Imaging Software: an intuitive suite unifying spectral and ion mobility data, supporting optical image overlays and flexible workflows.

Main Findings and Discussion

The combined system delivers:

• High-contrast molecular images of lipids and metabolites, demonstrating clear spatial distributions aligned with tissue morphology.
• Improved detection of low-mass analytes due to efficient low-energy CID fragmentation and reduced chemical noise via ion mobility separation.
• Robust operation with consistent performance across uneven sample surfaces, maintaining image quality without specialized preparation.
• Enhanced data richness from multidimensional acquisition, offering both mass spectral and mobility information for each pixel.

Benefits and Practical Applications

This integrated imaging approach enables:

• Comprehensive molecular profiling in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, facilitating drug distribution studies and metabolite localization.
• Rapid, label-free tissue diagnostics with minimal sample handling, supporting translational workflows.
• Cross-technique complementarity by merging DESI and MALDI data, expanding the detectable molecular range on a single platform.

Future Trends and Opportunities

Advancements are expected in real-time data processing, automated sample handling, and deeper integration of machine learning for pattern recognition in complex imaging datasets. Further expansion of ion mobility libraries and enhanced CCS databases will support more definitive compound identification and quantitative imaging.

Conclusion

The SYNAPT XS-enabled DESI imaging workflow, combined with HDI software, offers a robust, flexible, and information-rich platform for molecular imaging. Its minimal preparation requirements, enhanced selectivity, and multidimensional capabilities make it well suited for a wide range of analytical challenges in research and clinical settings.

References

No formal references were provided in the source document.