AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Applied Surface Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session AS-WeM

Paper AS-WeM10
A Quantitative Quest: Single Cell Analysis by LG-SIMS

Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 11:00 am, Room 212D

Session: Practical Surface Analysis II: Influence of Sample Preparation and Novel Sample Prep Techniques
Presenter: Christopher Szakal, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Correspondent: Click to Email
Large geometry secondary ion mass spectrometry (LG-SIMS) has been used extensively for particle analyses and geochemical analyses, owing to its ability to maintain adequate mass resolution while operating at high secondary ion transmission. Efforts will be presented that extend the knowledge acquired in these application areas to single cell analyses of elemental species. To be useful, LG-SIMS results likely need to be quantitative for the amounts of a given element per cell and/or in ratios of different elements within each cell. Approaching this level of detail requires the establishment of the natural variability of such data from cell-to-cell, the reproducibility of the measurement technique, and whether the data is relevant to pertinent questions about the cellular population. Progress will be shown towards achieving these aims for single bacterial cells, including sample preparation necessary for such measurements, technique-specific considerations, and analytical figures of merit for LG-SIMS elemental ratios. Prospective application areas will be presented, along with potential pitfalls of such an approach.