The invention relates to devices and methods for desorption scanning of analyte material deposited on a sample support, which can comprise the following mode of operation: (a) setting a position of the support to approach an impingement region onto which a beam is directed for local desorption of analyte material; (b) determining an actual position of the support after setting the position; (c) comparing the determined actual position with a target position of the support to determine any deviation; (d) adjusting a beam orientation, if a deviation is detected, so that the beam is directed onto the impingement region on the support that results when there is no deviation; (e) applying the beam to the impingement region to locally desorb analyte material and deliver it to an analyzer; and (f) checking whether a predetermined end condition is satisfied and, if not, repeating steps (a)-(e) for a subsequent non-congruent impingement region.

A surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization method according to an aspect includes: a first process of preparing a sample support (2) having a substrate (21) in which a plurality of through-holes (S) passing from one surface (21a) thereof to the other surface (21b) thereof are provided and a conductive layer (23) that covers at least the one surface (21a); a second process of placing a sample (10) on a sample stage (1) and arranging the sample support (2) on the sample (10) such that the other surface (21b) faces the sample (10); and a third process of applying a laser beam (L) to the one surface (21a) and ionizing the sample (10) moved from the other surface (21b) side to the one surface (21a) side via the through-holes (S) due to a capillary phenomenon.

Apparatus for laser induced ablation spectroscopy (LIBS) is disclosed. An apparatus can have a computer, a pulsed laser and a lightguide fiber bundle that is subdivided into branches. One branch can convey a first portion of the light to a first optical spectrometer and a different branch can convey a second portion of the light to another optical spectrometer. The first spectrometer can be relatively wideband to analyze a relative wide spectral segment and the other spectrometer can be high dispersion to measure minor concentrations. The apparatus can further comprise an unbranched lightguide fiber bundle to provide more light to a low sensitivity spectrometer. The apparatus can include an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer ICP-MS and a computer instructions operable to provide normalized LIBS/ICP-MS composition analyses.

A method for the identification and localization of small molecule species in a histologic thin tissue section comprises the steps of: a) acquiring a mass/mobility image of the tissue section and generating a mass/mobility map of the small molecule species of interest for each pixel of the image; b) providing a second sample of the same tissue and extracting the small molecules of interest, separating them, and acquiring mass and ion mobility spectra from the separated small molecules; c) identifying the small molecules of interest using corresponding reference databases; and d) assigning identified small molecules to entries in the mass/mobility maps of the first tissue section by comparison of ion masses and mobilities of the identified species to those of the second thin tissue section.

A method of analysis using mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed. The method comprises: using a first device to generate smoke, aerosol or vapour from a target comprising or consisting of a microbial population; mass analysing and/or ion mobility analysing said smoke, aerosol or vapour, or ions derived therefrom, in order to obtain spectrometric data; and analysing said spectrometric data in order to analyse said microbial population.

When a user designates a region of interest for a plurality of groups targeted for difference analysis in a microscopic observation image of a sample, an m/z candidate search unit searches for candidates for m/z presumed to differ, based on collected mass spectral data. An intensity histogram creation unit processing unit creates and displays a graph showing a frequency distribution of peak intensities at measurement points included in the ROI of the groups for each of the m/z candidates. If this graph exhibits multimodality, the data distribution is not suitable for a statistical hypothesis test. An intensity range determination unit limits an intensity range in accordance with a user's instruction. Then, ROI correction unit corrects the ROI so as to include only measurement points with peak intensities within the limited intensity range. A test processing unit performs a statistical hypothesis test using the data corresponding to the corrected ROI.

A surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization method according to an aspect includes: a first process of preparing a sample support (2) having a substrate (21) in which a plurality of through-holes (S) passing from one surface (21a) thereof to the other surface (21b) thereof are provided and a conductive layer (23) that covers at least the one surface (21a); a second process of placing a sample (10) on a sample stage (1) and arranging the sample support (2) on the sample (10) such that the other surface (21b) faces the sample (10); and a third process of applying a laser beam (L) to the one surface (21a) and ionizing the sample (10) moved from the other surface (21b) side to the one surface (21a) side via the through-holes (S) due to a capillary phenomenon.

Various embodiments are described herein for a system and a method for identifying a region of interest in tissue using mass spectrometry. An agent administration component can be provided to administer an exogenous agent to the tissue. A sampling unit can also be provided to acquire a sample from the tissue. The sample can then be provided to a high sensitivity analysis platform, such as a mass analyzer, to analyze the sample and determine a distribution of the exogenous agent or a by-product of the exogenous agent within the tissue based on the analysis. The analysis platform can then identify the region of interest based on the distribution of the exogenous agent or the distribution of the by-product.

A sample support according to an aspect is a sample support for a surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization method, and includes: a substrate in which a plurality of through-holes passing from one surface thereof to the other surface thereof are provided; and a conductive layer that is formed of a conductive material and covers at least the one surface. The through-holes have a width of 1 to 700 nm, and the substrate has a thickness of 1 to 50 μm.

When conducting imaging mass analysis for a region to be measured on a sample, an individual reference value calculating part obtains a maximum value in P.sub.i/I.sub.i of respective measuring points, and stores the value together with measured data as an individual reference value. When performing comparison analysis for a plurality of the data obtained from different samples, a common reference value determining part reads out corresponding a plurality of the individual reference values and determines a minimum value as a common reference value Fmin. A normalization calculation processing part normalizes the respective intensity values by multiplying the intensity values read out from an external memory device by a normalization coefficient long_Max×(Fmin/P.sub.i) obtained from the common reference value Fmin, TIC values Pi at the respective measuring points, and a maximum allowable value long_Max of a variable storing the intensity values at the time of operation.