The invention relates to mass spectrometers with an ion source, comprising a UV laser system for mass spectrometric analyses with ionization of analyte molecules in a sample by matrix-assisted laser desorption, which, with very low energy losses, can produce a spatially distributed spot pattern with several intensity peaks of equal height, thus making it possible to achieve an optimum degree of ionization of analyte ions for any task. Such a spot pattern can be generated from the UV beam with high transverse coherence, using a combination of a lens array and a lens, provided that the lens array satisfies a mathematical condition for separation of the micro-lenses from each other (pitch) and their focal length. For example, a lens array with square or round lenses produces a pattern of nine and five spots, respectively. The lens arrays are inexpensive and do not require any lateral adjustment in this arrangement.

Disclosed herein is a method of analysing a tissue sample. The method comprises identifying one or more regions of interest within the tissue sample based on a tissue stain that has been applied to the tissue sample. Analyte material is then generated from the one or more regions of interest identified based on the tissue stain using a direct surface sampling probe (10), which analyte material is then received at a sampling inlet (30) and passed towards a mass and/or ion mobility spectrometer (50) for analysis.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to replacement of the previous ICP-based ionisation system with a new laser ionisation system, providing improved mass spectrometer-based apparatus and methods for using them to analyse samples, in particular the use of mass spectrometry mass cytometry, imaging mass spectrometry and imaging mass cytometry, for the analysis of biological samples. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus, for example a mass cytometer, comprising: 1) a sampler; 2) a laser ionisation system to receive material removed from the sample by the sampler, wherein the laser ionisation system comprises an ionisation system conduit and a pulsed laser adapted to ionise sample material passing through or exiting the ionisation system conduit; and 3) a mass spectrometer to receive elemental ions from said ionisation system and to analyse said elemental ions.

A metal film of a measurement device including a transparent dielectric substrate is irradiated with first light from a transparent dielectric substrate side, an optical electric field enhanced by an optical electric field enhancing effect of a localized plasmon induced to a surface of the metal film by the irradiation is generated, light emitted from the transparent dielectric substrate side is detected, a specimen installed on a surface of a metal fine concavo-convex structure layer and a matrix agent are irradiated with second light from a side opposite to the side of the irradiation with the first light in a state where a voltage is applied to the metal fine concavo-convex structure layer through a voltage application electrode, an analysis target substance for mass spectrometry in the specimen is desorbed from the surface by the irradiation, and the desorbed analysis target substance is detected.

A concentric APCI surface ionization probe, supersonic sampling tube, and method for use of the concentric APCI surface ionization probe and supersonic sampling tube are described. In an embodiment, the concentric APCI surface ionization probe includes an outer tube, an inner capillary, and a voltage source coupled to the outer tube and the inner capillary. The inner capillary is housed within and concentric with the outer tube such that ionized gas (e.g., air) travels out of the outer tube, reacts with a sample, and the resulting analyte ions are sucked into the inner capillary. A supersonic sampling tube can include a tube coupled to a mass spectrometer and/or concentric APCI surface ionization probe, where the tube includes at least one de Laval nozzle.

The present invention relates to a method for single-cell imaging mass spectrometry (MS) by correlating an optical image of a cell sample with an MS image. The method of the invention is in particular useful in research to test concomitantly optical and molecular phenotypes at a single-cell resolution.

Mass spectra acquired by imaging mass spectrometry (IMS), in particular MALDI imaging of tissue sections, are each normalized by one of: the p-norm of the mass spectrum transformed by applying an exclusion list, the p-norm of the mass spectrum transformed by square rooting the intensity values, the median of the mass spectrum, and the median absolute deviation of the noise level of the mass spectrum.

Methods and devices for mass spectrometry are described, specifically the use of nanoparticulate implantation as a matrix for secondary ion and more generally secondary particles. A photon beam source or a nanoparticulate beam source can be used a desorption source or a primary ion/primary particle source.

Disclosed is a method for characterizing a sample by mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) according to which a spatial arrangement of at least one ion in the sample is characterized from imaging data associated with the ion, in terms of morphology and/or texture.

Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has become a prime tool for studying the distribution of biomolecules in tissue. Although IMS data sets can become very large, computational methods have made it practically feasible to search these experiments for relevant findings. However, these methods lack access to an important source of information that many human interpretations rely upon: anatomical insight. In this work, this need is addressed by (1) integrating a curated anatomical data source with an empirically acquired IMS data source, establishing an algorithm-accessible link between them; and (2) demonstrating the potential of such an IMS-anatomical atlas link by applying it toward automated anatomical interpretation of ion distributions in tissue.