Patent ID: 9546979
Date: 2017-01-17
CPC Classifications: G01N,H01J

Claim:
1. A method for analyzing a tissue section, the method comprising: depositing the tissue section onto a substrate, wherein the tissue section comprises at least one metabolite indicative of a cancer and a plurality of reference molecules that are not associated with the cancer; conducting a desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) technique on one or more locations of the tissue section in order to desorb the at least one metabolite and the plurality of reference molecules from the one or more locations of the tissue section and direct the at least one metabolite and the plurality of reference molecules into a mass spectrometer to thereby generate a mass spectral signal of the at least one metabolite and a plurality of reference mass spectral signals at the one or more locations; normalizing the mass spectral signal of the at least one metabolite at the one or more locations to a combination of the plurality of reference mass spectral signals from the tissue section in order to obtain a relative abundance of the at least one metabolite at the one or more locations within the tissue section; and producing a mass spectral image of the tissue section that comprises a relative abundance of the at least one metabolite at the one or more locations within the tissue section, wherein the relative abundance of the at least one metabolite at the one or more locations within the tissue section is indicative of locations of cancerous tissue or non-neoplastic tissue within the tissue section.