Review:
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: Characterising complex samples in two and three dimensions.
John Stephen Fletcher and John C. Vickerman
Analytical Chemistry 85 (2013) 610-639. doi: 10.1021/ac303088m 
Jo has been awarded a bursary from the Royal Society of Chemistry towards her attendance at the International SIMS Conference in Korea later in Autumn 2013.
At the meeting she will present her results on mammalian cell characterization. This is part of her PhD project on Lipidomic and Metabolomic Imaging of Biological Response Mechanisms in Tissues and Single Cells involving Raman and IR spectroscopies in addition to LC-MS and SIMS analyses.
The issue of Analytical Chemistry containing John and John’s review on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: Characterizing Complex Samples in Two and Three Dimensions has artwork generated by John Fletcher on the cover.
Publication:
Evaluating the challenges associated with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry for metabolomics using pure and mixed metabolites
John S. Fletcher, Helen L. Kotze, Emily G. Armitage, Nicholas P. Lockyer, John C. Vickerman
Metabolomics (2012) doi: 10.1007/s11306-012-0487-4 (2012)
Publication:
Imaging of metabolites using secondary ion mass spectrometry
Emily G. Armitage, Helen L. Kotze, Nicholas P. Lockyer
Metabolomics 9 (2013) 102-109
John and Nick have been awarded funding from EPSRC to develop novel ion beam systems. The funding, £261k, is over a two year period.
New publication…
The inherent problem of transflection-mode infrared spectroscopic microscopy and the ramifications for biomedical single point and imaging applications
Paul Bassan, Joe Lee, Ashwin Sachdeva, Juliana Pissardini, Konrad M. Dorling, John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson and Peter Gardner
Analyst (2012)
Congratulations to Emily on gaining her PhD in Systems Biology of HIF Metabolism in Cancer!
John Vickerman has been awarded the Médaille Pierre Chevenard by the Société Française de Métallurgie et de Matériaux (French Society for Metallurgy and Materials, SF2M). The award is made for his work in the development of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and is the first time the medal has been awarded to someone outside France in over 40 years.
The Pierre Chevenard medal is awarded by SF2M, in principle every two years, to a French or foreign national who has made an outstanding contribution in the areas which distinguished Pierre Chevenard; scientific instrumentation and methods of characterizing materials.
Pierre Chevenard (1888-1960)
Member of the French Academy of Sciences and the founding father of the Precision Metallurgy
Chevenard held the Chair of Metallurgy at the Ecole Supérieure des Mines, Saint-Etienne and was elected member of the Academy of Sciences, Section of Applied Sciences in 1946.
He was Commander of the Legion of Honor.
He began in Imphy Steelworks, and ended his career as Scientific Director of Commentry-Fourchambault-Decazeville.
His outstanding work earned him special awards including entering the Academy of Sciences, chairing the Society of Civil Engineers, and membership of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (1951), vice-president of the Scientific Council ONERA, vice-president of the Society of the Mineral Industry and President of the French Society of Physics.
The award ceremony will take place in Paris on 30 October, 2012.
Congratulations to Helen on gaining her PhD in Systems biology of chemotherapy in hypoxia environments!
Publication:
ToF-SIMS as a tool for metabolic profiling small biomolecules in cancer systems
Helen L. Kotze, Emily G. Armitage, John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Kaye J. Williams, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman
Surf. Interface Anal. doi: 10.1002/sia.5055 (2012)
Publication:
Peak picking as a pre-processing technique for imaging time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry
Jimmy D. Moore, Alex Henderson, John S. Fletcher, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman
Surf. Interface Anal. doi: 10.1002/sia.5062 (2012)
Publication:
SIMS informatics
Alex Henderson, Jimmy D. Moore and John C. Vickerman
Surf. Interface Anal. doi: 10.1002/sia.5065 (2012)
The application of laser ionisation methods has revolutionised mass spectrometry, particularly in the biosciences. The focus of research in our group is the analysis and chemical imaging of complex surfaces including biological cells and tissue. We have pioneered the development and application of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). This is a powerful surface analysis technique in which atomic and molecular species are ejected from sample surfaces using a highly focused high-energy ion beam. The ejected ions can be subjected to mass spectrometry directly, building up a chemical image as the ion beam is scanned across the surface. However, the majority of the chemical information is contained in the ejected neutral species, which must be ‘post-ionised’ prior to mass spectrometric detection. This post-ionisation step is most effectively performed with a high power pulsed laser. The investigation and optimization of this laser post-ionisation process is of interest from a fundamental and applied view.
The aim of this project is to study the laser post-ionisation characteristics of a series of molecules of significant biological interest including drugs and metabolites to provide the optimum route for their sensitive detection and imaging in medical and biological research.
Publication:
Time‐of‐flight SIMS as a novel approach to unlocking the hypoxic properties of cancer
Emily G Armitage, Helen L Kotze, John S Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Kaye J Williams, Nicholas P Lockyer, John C Vickerman
Surf. Interface Anal. doi: 10.1002/sia.5050 (2012)