A laser ablation probe comprises a tubular element adapted for conducting a carrier fluid in a substantially laminar flow. The tubular element comprises a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet arranged at opposite end portions of the tubular element for enabling the carrier fluid to flow through the tubular element. The tubular element further comprises a central portion having an aperture defined therein for admitting an aerosol generated by laser ablation from a material sample into the carrier fluid flow when this sample is positioned outside the tubular element at a distance in the range of 0 μm to 100 μm from the aperture.

The invention relates to a biological material molecular analysis device characterized in that it includes:—a laser (34) optionally using an optical parametric oscillator (OPO), configured to emit a wavelength between 2.5 ym and 12 put, said configured laser (34) being intended to ablate said biological material by ejecting charged and/or uncharged particles;—a mass spectrometer (31); and—a probe (S, 10) comprising at least one first analysis fiber (A, 14), connected to the laser (34), and a transfer tube (T, 21), connected to the mass spectrometer (31).

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.

Disclosed herein are integrated preparation and detection devices for studying biomass-burning aerosols, where the devices include a micro-fluidized bed reactor (MFBR), a transmission line, and an on-line detection unit that are connected in sequence. The MFBR may include a pyrolysis reactor and a pyrolysis furnace; the pyrolysis reactor may include a thermocouple, an introduction tube, and quartz sands; the on-line detection unit may be an on-line photoionization mass spectrometer; and the photoionization mass spectrometer may include a laser desorption system, a laser ionizer and a light energy ionizer. Devices of the present disclosure are beneficial to retain the original state of aerosol particles, and the fixed MFBR can realize rapid pyrolysis of a biomass due to its high and stable heat conduction efficiency, which is beneficial to studying the formation mechanism of aerosol particles.

Disclosed is a device to generate ions from a deposited sample, comprising: A chamber which is arranged and designed to keep the deposited sample in a conditioned environment comprising a dopant gas, A desorption device which is arranged and designed to desorb the deposited sample in the chamber using an energy burst, An ionization device which, for the purpose of ionization, is arranged and designed to irradiate the desorbed sample in the chamber using coherent electromagnetic waves or expose it to an electric discharge, a plasma, or light of an arc discharge lamp with broadband emission spectrum, which are chosen such that the dopant gas is receptive to them, and An extraction device which is arranged and designed to extract ions from the desorbed sample and transfer them into an analyzer. Disclosed is also a method which is preferably conducted on such a device.

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.

A method of analysis using mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed comprising: (a) using a first device to generate smoke, aerosol or vapour from a target in vitro or ex vivo cell population; (b) mass analysing and/or ion mobility analysing said smoke, aerosol or vapour, or ions derived therefrom, in order to obtain spectrometric data; and (c) analysing said spectrometric data in order to identify and/or characterise said target cell population or one or more cells and/or compounds present in said target cell population.

A method for evaluating a subject for a biological condition associated with metal metabolism includes sampling positions along a biological sample of the subject to obtain several ion samples. Each ion sample corresponds to a position on the biological sample and each position represents an amount of growth of the biological sample. The obtained ions are analyzed with a mass spectrometer thereby obtaining a plurality of traces. Each such trace represents a concentration of a corresponding elemental isotope, in a plurality of elemental isotopes, over time. A set of features is derived from the traces. Each feature is determined by a variation of a single isotope or a combination of isotopes in the plurality of traces. The set of features is inputted into a trained classifier to obtain a probability that the subject has the biological condition associated with metal metabolism.

A mass spectrometry system includes a sample holder provided in a vacuum changer and on which a sample is disposed, an irradiator configured to perform sputtering or ionization on the sample, an analyzer configured to analyze an ionized sample generated from the sample by the irradiator, and a controller configured to control the irradiator or the analyzer and perform a first process and a second process. The first process is to determine position information of materials in the sample by irradiating a laser or ion beam to a portion of the sample, and the second process is to irradiate a laser or ion beam of a first output value to another portion of the sample in a section in which the materials in the sample change and irradiate a laser or ion beam of a second output value in other sections.