Researchers at ORNL Blend Microscopy and Mass Spectrometry to Create a Tool That Simultaneously Identifies and Chemically Analyzes Substances
Oak Ridge National Laboratory sees potential for clinical laboratories and pathology groups to control disease and assess treatments
What do you get by blending microscopy with mass spectrometry? A new multi-tasking tool for studying disease progression and response to treatments in patients.
Combining these two technologies into a single device could also have uses for clinical laboratory scientists and pathologists. However, much research must be done before such a device is ready to obtain FDA clearance for use in clinical settings by the nation’s medical laboratories.
The new device was created by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. They created an imaging system that supplies microscopy with spatially resolved chemical analyses.
This new development will be of high interest to surgical pathologists who work with microscopes and clinical chemists who currently perform mass spectrometry testing. It shows how one research effort has the potential to bring together two technologies regularly used in laboratory medicine. (more…)
