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 investigates the integration of water cluster Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and MeV Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) for multimodal imaging at the micron scale, focusing on correlating elements and metabolites in biological samples. It demonstrates that SIMS can be performed on tissue sections mounted on polymer membranes without losing elemental information, allowing for subsequent elemental mapping. The research emphasizes the importance of sample preparation and confirms that water cluster SIMS maintains the elemental integrity of samples. This method enables the colocalization of metals and other elements with lipids and metabolites, offering potential insights into biological systems at the single-cell level.