Exact. Simultaneous. Multidimensionally.
Chronic inflammatory diseases build a highly complex, interdisciplinary field of research. A key technology for investigating inflammatory processes is the phenotyping and spatial representation of specific cell types in their respective disease- and tissue-specific microenvironment. Mass cytometric tissue analysis (also Cytometry by Time of Flight in Tissue; tissue CyTOF) combines the advantages of mass cytometry with the possibility of spatial imaging in tissues. Mass cytometry uses antibodies coupled with rare elements of different mass for antigen detection. Due to the minimal signal overlap of this method compared to fluorescence-coupled samples, mass cytometry allows the simultaneous analysis of currently up to 50 parameters. Thus, different cell populations and their interactions can be characterised in detail and multidimensionally with spatial resolution directly in inflammatory tissues to provide new insights into the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
The use of the tissue CyTOF can be booked by all scientific working groups at FAU, UKER and external groups by appointment in accordance with the usage and fee regulations.
