Technological advances in mass spectrometry imaging

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is an emerging imaging technique with the potential to improve and personalize cancer diagnostics. However, MSI suffers from low throughput, which prevents its routine use in hospitals. This low throughput is caused by how most MSI instruments operate, namely, by scanning a sample pixel-by-pixel. In this thesis, Aljoscha Körber developed a methodology that acquires pixels in parallel by combining a mass microscope with a Timepix3 detector, a camera developed at CERN with 1.56 ns time resolution. The resulting throughput is orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art commercial instruments while simultaneously offering high spatial resolving power. Subsequent works showed improvements in mass resolution and the applicability of this approach to large (bio)molecules via matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI).