Molecular Horizons Seminar: Dr. Matthew Briggs

Just as Michelangelo meticulously painted the Sistine Chapel, layer by layer, to reveal a divine masterpiece, mass spectrometry imaging allows scientists to ‘paint’ molecular landscapes with unparalleled precision. Instead of traditional pigments, we use metabolites, lipids, N-glycans and peptides to compose our molecular masterpiece, with the laser as our paintbrush, delicately desorbing and ionising each biomolecule to reveal intricate spatial distributions - each pixel a data point, each scan a precise stroke on the canvas of biology. In this presentation, I will paint the picture of 11 years of metabolite, lipid, N-glycan and peptide mass spectrometry imaging across my career thus far, including ovarian, endometrial and colorectal cancers, cartilage and bone from knee osteoarthritis patients, oats and grains, flatworms and hair.