Sebastiaan Van Nuffel | Materials Characterization Lab
Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is an imaging mass spectrometry technique that is capable of label-free chemical 2D and 3D imaging with a lateral resolution comparable to that of an optical microscope and a depth resolution down to 5 nm. ToF-SIMS imaging is thus possible at the level of a single cell. Furthermore, ToF-SIMS can detect both inorganic and organic molecules, and is sensitive enough to perform trace-element analyses. It is a particularly good technique for imaging lipids due to their high ionization efficiency, but it also allows high-spatial resolution imaging of nucleobases, amino acids, sugars, metabolites and non-native compounds such as drugs and toxins. This presentation will include an introduction to the technique, an overview of my past and current research involving tissue and single cell imaging, and potential areas for new collaborations here at Penn State.