Nanostructure-Initiator Mass Spectrometry (NIMS) Based Tissue Imaging for the Detection of Metabolite Markers of Drug-Resistant Breast Tumors

• Applicant: Dr. Wolfgang Edmund Reindl
• Subject Area: Biochemistry
• Term: from 2010 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 173140989

One of the major challenges in the successful treatment of breast cancer is the effective application of chemotherapy. Unfortunately the heterogeneity of breast cancer results in a wide range of sensitivities and even resistance to existing therapies. Selecting therapies based on the clinical and molecular characteristics of the tumor has the potential for more effective and less toxic treatment. An increasing number of studies describe altered metabolic pathways in drug resistant cancers and therefore suggest the potential use of metabolites as markers for the prediction of drug sensitivities. Recent developments in mass spectrometry now allow for ‘metabolomic’ profiling of cells and tissue for biomarker discovery and screening. However, the standard grinding and extraction protocols only show an average metabolite concentration for a tumor. Given the inherent heterogeneity within tumors, small drug-resistant breast cancer subpopulations are often missed. Direct metabolite imaging from tumors has the potential to overcome these limitations. The newly developed Nanostructure-Initiator Mass Spectrometry (NIMS) will be used for imaging metabolites from breast cancer tissue sections and thereby enable the identification of metabolic markers in heterogeneous drug-resistant breast tumors.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Dr. Trent Northen