Quantitative Nanoscale Imaging of Trace Elements in Biological Systems

我们提出的项目涉及研究新型化学成像方法，用于细胞和组织中微量元素的2D和3D可视化，与当前方法相比，灵敏度、可靠性和放大倍数大大提高。该技术包括强大的激光器，用于在高能粒子轰击下均匀和高灵敏度地检测从生物样本中喷射出的原子和小分子。其结果是一个多元素的化学地图的标本显示详细的亚细胞长度尺度。我们将展示这种方法在细胞和模型组织中检测和定位癌症药物的能力。然而，我们将开发的方法将更广泛地适用于一些重要的生物学问题，涉及微量元素的运输，储存和分布。这包括但不限于药物开发，疾病诊断和基础细胞生物学。

The project we propose involves research into novel chemical imaging methodology for 2D and 3D visualisation of trace elements in cells and tissues with greatly improved sensitivity, easy of reliability and magnification over current approaches. The technology includes powerful lasers for the uniform and highly sensitive detection of atoms and small molecules ejected from biological specimens under bombardment from high energy particles. The result is a multi-element chemical map of the specimen showing detail on the sub-cellular length scale. We shall demonstrate the power of this approach in the detection and localisation of cancer drugs in cells and model tissues. However, the methodology we will develop will be more widely applicable in a number of important biological problems involving trace element transport, storage and distribution. This includes but is not limited to drug development, disease diagnosis and fundamental cell biology.