Mass Spectrometry Spatial-Omics on a Single Conductive Slide

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) can analyze the spatial distribution of hundreds of different molecules directly from tissue sections usually placed on conductive glass slides to provide conductivity on the sample surface. Additional experiments are often required for molecular identification using consecutive sections on membrane slides compatible with laser capture microdissection (LMD). In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the use of a single conductive slide for both matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)-MSI and direct proteomics. In this workflow, regions of interest can be directly ablated with LMD while preserving protein integrity. These results offer an alternative for MSI-based multimodal spatial-omics.