MALDI Imaging (Mass Spectrometry Imaging, MSI) is a spatially resolved, label-free analytical technique for direct analysis of biological samples. Acquisition speed and sample throughput are a limiting factor in MSI experiments, in particular in clinical research where large cohorts of patients have to be analyzed to encompass the biological variance of human samples. Acquisition speed also limits MSI experiments at high spatial resolution, especially for larger tissue sections.

Here, we present data from a next generation MALDI-TOF instrument that enables acquisition speeds of up to 50 pixel (spectra) per second at pixel sizes of 10 µm and smaller. Data is shown from the most common application areas of MSI, including lipid, peptide and intact protein analysis.