Multimodal Ion Beam Imaging to Correlate Elements and Metabolites at the Micron Scale Using Water Cluster Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and MeV Ion Beam Analysis

The study presents a novel workflow combining Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and X-ray elemental mapping to achieve high-resolution multiomics imaging at the micron scale. This approach allows for the correlation of metal-containing drugs, nanoparticles, or bioaccumulated metals with host metabolites and lipids in tissue samples. The researchers addressed challenges related to charge accumulation on sample surfaces by testing various sample preparation strategies, such as carbon coating and metallic grids. The method was successfully applied to porcine skin sections, demonstrating its capability to image different regions of a hair follicle and colocate elements, metals, and lipids without delocalization or loss from sequential measurements.