About mAss spectrometry: from elementAl AnAlysis to diAgnostic imAging

Almost hundred years after the first demonstration of exact mass determination of chemical elements by J. J. Thomson’s in 1912, the method discovered by him – mass spectrometry – reached a high level of development in different fields of science and applications to life sciences, technology, medicine and public life. New aspects of ionization of molecules from all aggregate states contributed largely to develop new ion sources for almost universal usage. By development of distinct ion optics the secondary ion beams can be manipulated in mass spectrometers, which may contain cells for ion concentration or fragmentation of entire ion clouds or their parts. Modern mass spectrometry is characterized by unique properties for research and analytics like specificity, sensitivity, speed, the possibility of automatization and of application of algorithms for interpretation of experimental data. These properties are already integrated in commercial instruments and used for “omics”-type of projects, like genomics, proteomics, glycomics, lipidomics, and so on. In this article, own investigations and method developments are presented, in which high resolution mass spectrometry, hyphenated techniques to MS and automated data interpretation are playing a crucial role. These technical solutions were applied to projects focussed to discovery of potential biomarker of human diseases. In the present vision of the future MS in medicine, MS imaging will play an important role. Using laser desorption for ionization, the images similar to those obtained by microscopy can be obtained, where they contain additionally also the information on the molecular structure as an extra value.