MALDI imaging in clinical research

Dr. Corinna Henkel
Bruker, Bremen, Germany

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) - Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) has become a powerful tool for different MS imaging applications in life sciences and opens up new possibilities in further scientific fields like environmental and applied analytics.
The Bruker rapifleX was recently launched with its new MALDI TOF/TOF ion optics and is the most advanced MALDI-TOF/TOF system on the market today.
RapifleX delivers increased acquisition speed of up to 50 pixels per second, robustness and translates both into higher throughput and up-time and also lower costs/sample. With its newly designed smartbeam 3D laser system, the rapifleX is capable of generating high-definition imaging data at a spatial resolution of down to 5μm without oversampling. Due to its simple and tool-free cleaning procedure, downtime is reduced to a minimum in 24/7 operations. The new 3-stage reflector enables enhanced mass resolution up to R=50,000.
The newly developed MS/MS ion optics allows for high-speed imaging of individual compounds at an enhanced level of specificity. While the Bruker rapifleX sets a new benchmark in terms of speed and spatial resolution, the Bruker solariX 2xR MALDI-FTICR represents a highly complementary imaging MS system, which offers unrivaled mass resolving power of up to R = 15 million and outstanding mass accuracy in the ppb range. This results in MALDI imaging data that represent an ultimate level of convenience, which allows for the straightforward identification of compounds off-tissue directly, for example when analyzing drug distribution and metabolization.


Biosketch
Dr. Corinna Henkel got interest in medical research in 2002 when she spent one year abroad at the Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA after her biology studies. She worked on head and neck cancer (Prof. Thomas E. Carey) and the auditory system (Prof. Jochen Schacht). Afterwards she did her PhD in the Medical Hospital, RWTH Aachen, Germany where she set up a proteomics lab and worked on liver fibrosis progression in mice models. After her PhD in 2006 she started her Postdoc in the Medizinisches Proteom-Center (MPC) headed by Prof. Helmut E. Meyer, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany working on liver fibrosis in humans. In 2008 Corinna got her first group leader position in the Pathology department of the Medical Hospital, RWTH Aachen and started to work on MALDI imaging of proteins mainly in the field of urooncologic diseases. In 2011 she continued her work as group leader at the MPC on MALDI imaging and bladder cancer. In 2014 Corinna moved closer to the industry by joining the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS in 2014. Since May 2016 Corinna is working as Application Specialist MALDI imaging, Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen, Germany.

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