Mapping biomolecules in bone with MALDI mass spectrometry imaging

Background
Bone is a highly dynamic tissue in which complex interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix are responsible for the continuous replacement and deposition of new tissue. Understanding the spatial distribution of biomolecules within bone, from small metabolites to large proteins, is important to study bone health and disease. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has emerged as a powerful tool for identifying and mapping biomolecules directly in tissues, offering insights into biological processes. Among the various types of MSI, MALDI-MSI (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization) is a popular technique in which a laser is used to ionize compounds in a tissue section coated with a specialized matrix. While MALDI-MSI has great potential in bone research, the hard nature of bone tissue makes sample preparation difficult, thereby limiting its applicability.

Project description
This project aims to optimize the preparation of bone tissue samples for MALDI-MSI using the instrument available at Chalmers University. You will explore different preparation strategies to determine how various parameters influence data quality, including:

• the effect of embedding materials and substrate conductivity;
• comparison of room temperature vs. cryo-temperature preparation;
• the potential for reusing archived histological sections.

The goal is to develop workflows that improve the applicability of MALDI-MSI in bone research, while gaining hands-on experience with advanced tissue imaging techniques.

Requirements

• Background in chemistry, biomedical engineering, materials science or related fields.
• Basic laboratory skills.
• Comfortable handling bone samples (for example, animal bones from grocery stores).
• Interest in imaging and characterization of biological tissues.

Supervision
This thesis project will be co-supervised by Chiara Micheletti (Department of Physics, Division of Microstructure Physics) and Per Malmberg (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Division of Chemistry and Biochemistry). Chiara Micheletti joined Chalmers in May 2025 as an assistant professor, and her research focuses on bone at the interface between materials science and health. Per Malmberg’s research focuses on analytical chemistry and particularly mass spectrometry, and he is responsible for the MALDI-MSI instrument at Chalmers.