Top-down approach to studying biological components using ToF-SIMS

Journal article, 2011

We present in this article a novel approach to identifying subcellular components from spectral images collected with ToF-SIMS. The method utilizes a separation technique to isolate and enrich cellular fractions which are then examined with ToF-SIMS to identify peak or peak ratio markers to assign reference spectra. The ultimate aim of the project is to utilize these reference spectra to identify cellular components from spectral images. We present data from three such extracts (nuclei, cytosol and membrane-bound organelles) which confirms that characteristic spectral differences do exist between these systems. These results indicate that such a ‘top-down’ approach to subcellular analysis can aid cellular imaging with ToF-SIMS.