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Ambient Ionization - Mass Spectrometry: Advances Toward Intrasurgical Cancer Detection, Alan Keith Jarmusch

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation research has focused on the development of ambient ionization – mass spectrometry (MS) for clinical measurements, specifically intrasurgical cancer detection. The molecular differences between normal and cancerous tissue were detected via direct tissue analysis in vitro by touch spray ionization (TS) or by analyzing sectioned or smeared tissue using desorption electrospray ionization (DESI). The physical form of the tissue, e.g. in vitro sampling, sectioned, or smeared, was inconsequential in differentiating normal from cancerous tissue; however, the spectra acquired by TS and DESI differed due to differences in ionization processes. We envision that TS-MS and DESI-MS could impact diagnostic …