Identifying the elephant: technological developments towards the complete identification of lipids

The work focuses on the application of new combinations of techniques to improve the utility of mass spectrometry imaging. There are three major functions in use here: first, the improvement of mass resolution in mass spectrometry imaging by using increasingly powerful mass detectors to separate increasingly smaller mass differences. Second, the improvement of spatial resolution in mass spectrometry imaging (specifically in Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization) by the use of oversampling (taking images that are closer together than the width of the laser beam) combined with a second, more powerful laser (called MALDI-2). Third, the use of ozone in the analysis of unsaturated lipids combined with mass spectrometry imaging to produce isomer-resolved images of lipids. Most interestingly, this thesis contains the very first images of lipids beyond phosphatidylcholines being analyzed through Ozone-Induced Dissociation in combination with mass spectrometry imaging.