Benchtop MALDI-TOF Imaging Starter Kit

Compact, Affordable, MALDI Imaging: the application of Mass Spectrometry imaging is rapidly growing but is still only utilised by experienced scientists.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) began its development in 1997 with the publication of “Molecular Imaging of Biological Samples: Localization of Peptides and Proteins Using MALDI-TOF MS” by Richard Caprioli et al. in Analytical Chemistry. Over the past 25 years, there have been numerous developments in terms of samples preparation, matrix application, and instrumentation that have enabled increases in figures of merit related to MSI. Each improvement is accompanied by an increase in method complexity and price tag, while many users are seeking an entry-level instrument to perform simpler experiments that still produce spatially resolved mass data. To this end, we have tested a benchtop Shimadzu MALDI-8020 capable of MALDI MSI and employed simpler sample preparation techniques. As an introduction to MSI, we share the optimization of relevant parameters and matrices as well as the results of relevant imaging experiments.