The Institute of Cancer Research and AB SCIEX Target the Spread of Disease Revealed Through Mass Spectrometry Imaging

A key research area for The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is investigating the spread of cancer in the human body in an effort to identify new and effective treatment strategies. To help advance this research, the ICR is collaborating with scientists at AB SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, to standardize advanced methods of mass spectrometry-based tissue imaging. ICR researchers are using AB SCIEX mass spectrometry technology to better understand this spread of disease, known as metastasis, which is responsible for approximately 90 percent of cancer patient deaths.

The biomedical research community continues to face the complex challenge of developing strategies to address the progression of cancer. One of the ways in which the ICR is contributing to efforts to address this challenge is by studying communication between cells associated with the spread of cancer, revealing molecules involved in metastasis that can be targeted with new drugs.

The ICR's collaboration with scientists at AB SCIEX enhances this research project by applying the latest advancements in high-resolution, tissue imaging technology to investigate how aspects of the tumor micro-environment drive the spread of cancer. The cancer researchers are using mass spectrometry to conduct non-targeted discovery, looking at specific regions of the tumor, investigating proteins that are present in these regions and how they enhance metastatic progression.

The technology being used is the AB SCIEX TOF/TOF 5800 System, a MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight technology) system, which works by desorbing molecules directly from complex biological tissue samples and identifying the individual protein components by their molecular weight. This AB SCIEX system is the fastest, most sensitive MALDI-based mass spectrometer, enabling scientists to achieve in less than a day what takes more than weeks on other MALDI-based systems.

Janine Erler, Team Leader, The Institute of Cancer Research

"One of our major goals at The Institute of Cancer Research is to contribute to the development of new anti-cancer treatments. This collaboration with AB SCIEX on mass spectrometry-based imaging will help us discover new molecules that are critical to cancer spread."