Towards Quantitative Single Cell Mass Spectrometry Analysis

Zhibo Yang
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman 73072

Cell is the basic unit of life. Many diseases, such as cancer, are increasingly understood as a process defined and propagated at the single cancer cell biology level. The development of precision medicine will require the capability to administer drug treatments to maximize the benefit to the individual patients. Cells are traditionally studied through population analysis, and averaged results are obtained. Understanding individual cells is critical for advances in many areas ranging from cell biology to clinical treatment. Due to its high sensitivity and broad detection range, MS (mass spectrometry) has become a promising technique for single cell analysis. We have developed a microscale sampling and ionization device, the Single-probe, that can be coupled to a mass spectrometer to study live single cells. We were able to obtain metabolomics profiles from single cells and quantify the amounts and concentrations of molecules (e.g., anticancer drugs) in single cells.

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Dr. Yang obtained his B.S. in Geochemistry (1997) and an M.S. degree in Physical Chemistry (2000) from the University of Science and Technology of China. In 2005, he received his Ph.D. degree at Wayne State University. He conducted postdoctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2005–2008) and the University of Colorado, Boulder (2008–2012). In 2012, he started his independent career at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Yang’s current research is focused on the development and application of novel microscale mass spectrometry techniques to study single cells, tissue imaging, and multicellular tumor spheroids. He is also interested in multivariate data analysis, machine learning, computational chemistry, and fundamental ion chemistry.