This week’s Mass Spec News
2024’s technological standouts, a new way of pinpointing painkillers, and needles made from bone…
James Strachan | 2 min read | News
Nature’s Method of the Year, how dinosaurs ate their way to dominance, and Erin Baker’s sea lion breakthrough…
Essential Reading
Nature’s Method of the Year 2024 goes to…
Spatial proteomics! “Approaches for profiling the spatial proteome in tissues are the basis of atlas-scale projects that are delivering on their promise for understanding biological complexity in health and disease,” the Nature authors wrote.
I’d like to offer a special congratulations to the Mann Lab, who this year introduced “deep visual proteomics,” and were featured in Nature’s collection – you can read their reflections in Nature here.
And in case you missed it, we recently spoke with first author Thierry Nordmann about how the approach enabled the team to treat a previously untreatable skin condition.
“Spatial proteomics represents a powerful new way to understand disease mechanisms at molecular resolution. Our work shows how this technology can make a real difference. We were able to analyze thousands of proteins in specific cell types from archived patient samples, discover a key pathway driving disease, and translate this finding into successful treatment,” he said.
Imaging Mass Spectrometry: Here’s What’s Next
Boone Prentice’s imaging mass spectrometry deep dive – What’s Now? What’s Next? – was one of our most-read articles of 2024. If we can overcome data integration challenges, imaging mass spectrometry could help open the door to more systems biology-based explorations of health and disease, argued.
What’s now for the Prentice Lab? A new method using divalent metal-ligand complexes to produce new ion types for collision induced dissociation analysis in MALDI imaging mass spectrometry – enabling the spatial mapping of phosphatidylcholine (the main component of cellular membranes) sn-positional isomers in rat brain and glioblastoma tissues, revealing differential distributions of the sn-positional isomers.
How Dinosaurs Ate Their Way to Dominance
Analyses of hundreds of fossilized digestive remains has revealed details about the dietary habits and ecological strategies that enabled dinosaurs to dominate terrestrial ecosystems. By studying more than 500 bromalites – fossilized faeces, intestinal contents, and vomit – scientists uncovered how dinosaurs gradually replaced other tetrapods, leveraging both opportunistic advantages and dietary adaptations during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods.
An international team of researchers, led by Uppsala University in Sweden, employed synchrotron microtomography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to analyze bromalites, reconstructing three-dimensional models and identifying microscopic dietary remains, such as beetle exoskeletons, fish scales, and plant cuticles. Molecular analyses further revealed compounds like sterols and short-chain alkanes, highlighting rapid mineralization and exceptional preservation. The findings indicate a stepwise ascent of dinosaurs to ecological dominance.
To find out more, check out our full story here!
The Analytical Scientist Presents:
Enjoying yourself? There's plenty more where that came from! Our weekly Mass Spec Newsletter brings you the most popular stories as they unfold, chosen by our fantastic Editorial team!
Worth Your Time
Erin Baker and colleagues perform proteomic and lipidomic plasma evaluations to reveal biomarkers for domoic acid toxicosis in California Sea Lions; the work could lead to more rapid DAT diagnoses. Link
This Perspective explores “the transformative impact” of ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry in the characterization of complex environmental and petroleum samples; the authors showcase a selection of impactful applications published in the last 20+ years, including lipids in sediments and the characterization of kerogen. Link
Lingjun Li and colleagues evaluate the ZipChip microfluidic CE platform, manufactured by 908 Devices, for polyamine analysis; the platform “performed very well in many metrics,” they say. Link
Waters Corporation opens a manufacturing facility in Longbridge, UK – for essential components used in Waters mass spec systems. Link
Researchers introduce ProHap, a Python-based tool that constructs protein sequence databases from phased genotypes of reference panels – a gap in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Link
Over the course of my Biomedical Sciences degree it dawned on me that my goal of becoming a scientist didn’t quite mesh with my lack of affinity for lab work. Thinking on my decision to pursue biology rather than English at age 15 – despite an aptitude for the latter – I realized that science writing was a way to combine what I loved with what I was good at.
From there I set out to gather as much freelancing experience as I could, spending 2 years developing scientific content for International Innovation, before completing an MSc in Science Communication. After gaining invaluable experience in supporting the communications efforts of CERN and IN-PART, I joined Texere – where I am focused on producing consistently engaging, cutting-edge and innovative content for our specialist audiences around the world.
