Hua Tian, PhD, MSc, visiting research associate professor of environmental and occupational health, is co-corresponding author of “Multi-Modal Mass Spectrometry Imaging Identifies Cell-Type-Specific Metabolic and Lipidomic Variation in the Mammalian Liver,” a recent publication in the journal Developmental Cell.
In the paper, Tian and colleagues report their success in using multimodal mass spectrometry imaging to interrogate the mouse liver to identify signatures of biochemical metabolic activity within different cell types.
“Capturing these fleeting processes in the native tissue environment is challenging,” says Tian.
Tian and colleagues developed a novel mass spectrometry imaging using water cluster ion beam and integrated spatial omic workflow, achieving 1 micrometer cellular resolution with high sensitivity.
In collaboration with co-corresponding author Brent Stockwell, PhD, professor and chair of biological sciences, and his laboratory group at Columbia University, they applied the workflow to the mammalian livers to build a comprehensive chemical atlas for understanding liver function at the molecular and cellular levels.
As the platform matures, the methodology could prove useful to characterize other metabolic processes in health and disease, the team reported.
-Michele Baum