Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) for Mass Spectrometry Based Imaging

代谢产物几乎产生于我们身体的每一个组织中的每一个过程。目前测量这些代谢物的技术是粗糙的，因为它们使研究人员只能知道特定组织中的量。问题是，组织本身是复杂的，因为它们包含许多不同的细胞类型，每种细胞都有不同的目的。我们要求将一种称为DESI源的复杂设备添加到我们实验室已有的质谱仪中。DESI源和质谱仪的结合将使多个研究人员能够可视化组织中各种代谢物、脂质和神经递质的具体位置，这将使我们能够更多地了解这些代谢物在我们体内各种组织中的作用。这代表了当前技术的重大进步，因为我们将能够研究我们所有主要器官正常运作期间产生的数千种代谢物中的任何一种。 这种基础设施将对许多研究项目有用。主要申请人研究体内不同的代谢物以及它们如何调节身体处理（代谢和消除）药物的方式。身体处理药物的方式很重要，因为它在人群中差异很大。这导致一些人具有药物的预期有益效果，而另一些人则会出现不必要的毒副作用。基础设施将促进研究，使我们能够确定体内任何器官的特定区域与同一器官的另一个区域相比如何受到代谢物水平变化的影响。这将有助于阐明为什么人群对药物的反应差异很大。 许多其他研究项目也将受益于所要求的基础设施。我们要求的新的代谢物可视化工具将帮助我们了解大脑随着时间的推移退化时会发生什么。它还将帮助我们了解母体暴露于有毒化合物对胎儿发育的影响，运动的特定代谢有益作用，脊柱的代谢变化，以及随着细胞生长，多种代谢物水平如何变化。

Metabolites are produced from nearly every process, in every tissue in our body. Current techniques to measure these metabolites are crude in that they allow researchers to know only the amount in a specific tissue. The problem with this is that tissues themselves are complex in that they contain many different cell types each with a different purpose. We are requesting a sophisticated piece of equipment called a DESI source to be added to a mass spectrometer that already exists in our lab. The combination of the DESI source and the mass spectrometer will allow multiple researchers to visualize the specific location of various metabolites, lipids and neurotransmitters in tissues which will allow us to learn more about what these metabolites are doing in various tissues in our body. This represents a major advance from current technologies as we will be able to investigate practically any of the thousands of metabolites produced during the normal functioning of all of our major organs. This infrastructure will be useful to many research programs. The principal applicant studies different metabolites in the body and how they regulate the way that the body handles (metabolizes and eliminates) drugs. The way the body handles drugs is important because it varies substantially amongst the population. This results in some people that have the intended beneficial effect of the drug while others experience unwanted toxic side effects. The infrastructure will facilitate studies that allow us determine how a particular area of any organ in the body is impacted by changes in metabolite levels compared to another area of the same organ. This will help elucidate the reasons why the population varies substantially in their response to medications. Many other research programs will benefit from the requested infrastructure as well. The new metabolite visualization tool we are requesting will help us learn what happens to the brain when it degenerates over time. It will also help us learn the impact of maternal exposure to toxic compounds on fetal development, the specific metabolic beneficial effects of exercise, metabolic changes in the spine, and how multiple levels of metabolites change as cells grow.