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)
Alex gave an invited presentation at the Joint IAEA-SPIRIT-Japan Technical Meeting on Development and Utilization of MeV-SIMS held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 21-25 May 2012.
The meeting was to determine the scope and prospects for the emerging MeV-SIMS technique and the outcome was very positive.
The presentation covered factors that influence the form of a Static SIMS spectrum and various issues that may arise in its interpretation and can be found here.
Publication:
New prospects for molecular post-ionisation using femtosecond IR lasers
Alessia Longobardo, Alisdair N. Macpherson, John C. Vickerman, Nicholas P. Lockyer
Surf. Interface Anal. doi: 10.1002/sia.4951 (2012)
We held a very successful MassSpectrometry@Manchester symposium in the MIB focussing on Data Analysis.
Alex’s presentation is available here
We bid fond farewell to John Fletcher who is taking up a fellowship position at the University of Gothenburg. John joined the group as a PhD student in 2001 and progressed to Post-Doc in 2004.
In Gothenburg he will be collaborating with Andrew Ewing’s group who have a range of SIMS instrumentation and will be working on biological cells and tissue. We expect to retain a strong collaboration with John.
Goodbye and Good Luck!
This week we welcome back Felipe Kessler from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil who will be with us for 12 months as part of his PhD training in SIMS. Felipe, some of you will recall was with us for a short visit in the Autumn. Those with longer memories will be interested to know that Felipe’s PhD supervisor is Daniel Weibel who was a Post-Doc in the group in 2000-2002.
Publication:
FTIR microscopy of biological cells and tissue: data analysis using resonant Mie scattering (RMieS) EMSC algorithm
Paul Bassan, Ashwin Sachdeva, Achim Kohler, Caryn Hughes, Alex Henderson, Jonathan Boyle, Jonathan H. Shanks, Michael Brown, Noel W. Clarke and Peter Gardner
Analyst 137 (2012) 1370-1377
Today we welcome a new member to the group – Dr Gabriel Karras. Gabriel is from Greece and will be working on laser postionisation.
Publication (SIMS XVIII Contribution):
Comparison of C60 and GCIB primary ion beams for the analysis of cancer cells and tumour sections
John S. Fletcher, Sadia Rabbani, Andrew M. Barber, Nicholas P. Lockyer, John C. Vickerman
Surf. Interface Anal. (2012)
We were pleased to host Dr Satoka Aoyogi who visited our lab for almost two weeks. Satoka is a lecturer in BioPhysics at Shimane University in Japan.
Rowland Hill (Ionoptika) and Satoka Aoyagi with John Fletcher in the J105 lab.
We start 2012 by welcoming a new student to the group. Jo Denbigh joins us to work on a collaborative project with Roy Goodacre, Lipidomic and metabolomic imaging of biological response mechanisms.