In the postgenomic era, one expects the suite of chemical players in a brain region to be known and their functions uncovered. The enormous biochemical complexity of nervous system, where even adjacent cells often have very different and dynamic metabolic profiles, necessitates development and application of technologies capable of characterizing the neurometabolome on the individual cell level. Here select brain tissues are sampled, their cells distributed on a slide and the cell locations determined. Next, the individual cells are interrogated via mass spectrometry imaging and their chemical profiles determined.  Rare cells are found, and because most of the material remains on the target, these can be selected for information-rich follow-up studies.  After a subtle biological perturbation, only a few cells in a large cell population respond; using this mass spectrometry imaging approach, such cells are located and characterized.

High throughput single cell profiling via mass spectrometry imaging

244th National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.