Mass Spectrometry Imaging in Neuroscience

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that a Special Issue of Biomolecules, entitled “Mass Spectrometry Imaging in Neuroscience”, is now open for submission. I would like to invite you to submit some of your recent work or a topical review.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has become a valuable chemical imaging tool for biological research, offering high chemical specificity, high sensitivity, and multiplexed detection of multiple biomolecules that localize within cells and tissues at cellular and subcellular spatial resolution. MSI can be performed as either a targetting or non-targetting approach, the latter providing a significant analysis tool for exploring new samples without a priori knowledge. Different MSI techniques are suitable for a variety of applications with particular specifications and demands on spatial resolution, detected molecules, sensitivity, and sample status.

Over recent decades, MSI has been increasingly applied to study molecular organization and the functional relations of the underlying biological processes in neuronal cells, the brain, and neurological diseases and disorders. The spatial localization of biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, peptides and metabolites, etc. can now be mapped and related to their neurological functions. Cellular and subcellular molecular turnover, reflecting the synthesis, metablism and degradation in neurons and the brain at a certain stage of neuronal development, maturation, or pathology, is now being added to this knowledge base. Biomarkers distributed within a specific regions of cells and tissues provide valuable insights into cellular pathways of neurodegenerative diseases. These are just a several of the diverse topics that can be investigated using MSI.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute an original article or review focusing on any aspects of neurobiology using MSI.

This SI aims to provide the readership with a comprehensive insight into different MSI technologies along with their specific applications in neurobiology. This will help researchers to identify the potential and suitability of MSI techniques for further applications in the field. 

Dr. Nhu Thi Ngoc Phan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• mass spectrometry imaging
• secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)
• matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)
• desorption electrospray ionization (DESI)
• laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry imaging (LA-ICP-MSI)
• multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS)
• molecular and organelle turnover
• brain
• neurons
• synapses
• neuronal stem cells
• membrane lipids
• synaptic proteins
• neural peptides
• metabolites
• diseases
• disorders