MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging for the Masses: An Introduction to MALDI MSI

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) began its development in 1997 with the publication of “Molecular Imaging of Biological Samples: Localization of Peptides and Proteins Using MALDI-TOF MS” by Richard Caprioli et al. in Analytical Chemistry. Over the past 25 years, there have been numerous developments in terms of samples preparation, matrix application, and instrumentation that have enabled increases in figures of merit related to MSI.

Each improvement is accompanied by an increase in method complexity and price tag, while many users are seeking an entry-level instrument to perform simpler experiments that still produce spatially resolved mass data.

To this end, we have tested a benchtop Shimadzu MALDI-8020 capable of MALDI MSI and employed simpler sample preparation techniques.

As an introduction to MSI, we share the optimization of relevant parameters and matrices as well as the results of relevant imaging experiments.

Presenter: Dr. Kevin Tucker (Associate Professor, Analytical Chemistry, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)

Dr. Kevin Tucker received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. Dr. Tucker’s research lies at the nexus of food, energy, and water. We focus on the detection of pharmaceutical and personal care products within local and regional waterways and the surrounding soil systems including agricultural fields as well as modeling laboratory exposure using invertebrate organisms. Dr. Tucker focuses on method development in mass spectrometry to address each of these research directions.

Presenter: Nazim Boutaghou, Ph.D. (Life Science Product Manager, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments)

Nazim Boutaghou is the Life Science Product Manager at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI). He oversees SSI’s wide portfolio of MALDI instrumentation, including the newly released Benchtop Imaging Upgrade for the MALDI-80X0 instruments. Nazim Boutaghou graduated with a Master’s in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Bordeaux 1 (Bordeaux, France) later received a Master’s in Business Management from the Bordeaux Institute of Business Administration (IAE). He moved to the US in 2006 to further his knowledge in Analytical Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry, joining Dr. Richard Cole’s group at the University of New Orleans. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 2011 and joined Shimadzu in 2013 as an Applications Scientist specializing in MALDI-based analyses.