Abstract

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is applied to measure the spatial distribution of hundreds of biomolecules in a sample. A mass spectrometer scans over the entire sample and collects a mass spectrum every 5-200 µm. This results in thousands of spots in which a mass spectrum is acquired. Each mass spectrum consists of hundreds of analytes that are measured by their mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio. For each analyte the peak intensity in the mass spectra of every pixel is known and can be set together to map the spatial distribution of the analyte in the sample.

About This Material

This is a Hands-on Tutorial from the GTN which is usable either for individual self-study, or as a teaching material in a classroom.

Questions this will address

• Did the tryptic digestions work?
• Is there an intensity gradient in the data?
• How good is the m/z accuracy?

Learning Objectives

• How to upload an imzML file into Galaxy
• Getting an overview of the MSI data with the MSI quality control tool
• How to export MSI data as tabular files