Molecular Horizons Seminar - Dr David P. Bishop

Perturbances in the homeostasis of endogenous elements and/or the presence of exogenous elements is a feature of many diseases, and understanding where these changes are taking place has driven the development of elemental bioimaging. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a quantitative bioimaging technique used to determine the in situ concentration of trace elements in thin sections of biological tissue. LA-ICP-MS imaging is also able to explore molecular features via standard immunolabelling protocols and a suitable elemental tag used as a proxy to indirectly measure the target biomolecule.

This presentation will present a brief overview of the imaging process, provide detailed examples including its use to investigate changing elemental concentrations in Parkinson’s disease, and quantitative imaging of dystrophin expression in tissues as a potential biomarker for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.