| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science | Monday Sessions |
| Session AS+BI-MoA |
| Session: | Practical Surface Analysis I: Advancing Biological Surface Analysis/Imaging Beyond ‘Show and Tell’ |
| Presenter: | Christopher Szakal, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
| Authors: | C. Szakal, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) S. Da Silva, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) N. Olson, 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 bacterial cell analyses of elemental species. To be useful, LG-SIMS results 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 within different known growth conditions, including analytical figures of merit for LG-SIMS elemental ratios. Prospective application areas will be presented, along with potential pitfalls of such an approach.