Discover how researchers at the University of Western Australia use NanoSIMS to advance therapeutic research, enabling high-resolution analysis of drug interactions and biological processes at the cellular level.

Nucleic acid therapeutics (NATs) are being developed to provide targeted treatments for diseases such as cardiovascular illness, diabetes, and cancers — at the genetic level. How to best accomplish that targeting is the subject of intense scientific investigation worldwide.

At the University of Western Australia in Perth, researchers injected a specific labeled NAT into wild-type mice, then harvested their cells for imaging.

Along with backscattered electron (BSE) imaging using a scanning electron microscope, the study applied a NanoSIMS 50L ion microprobe made by CAMECA — the pioneer in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) technology. The NanoSIMS 50L enables lateral resolution down to 50 nm, parts per million (ppm) sensitivity in element imaging, mass resolution greater than 10 000 M/dM, and parallel acquisition of 7 masses.

So it can provide superior isotopic and trace element analysis in nanoscale regions of interest. The instrument offers breakthrough analyses in disciplines from cell biology and geology/space science to environmental microbiology and materials research.

The UWA team found that NanoSIMS revealed, with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, the distribution of labeled NATs throughout cellular and subcellular compartments. Read this short report for the full success story. And probe the possibilities of what questions NanoSIMS might answer in your own work.