Reece Franklin awarded international student travel prize

Reece presenting his work.

University of Nottingham's Reece Franklin recently recently received the NASIMS international student travel award for his presentation titled  "A novel insight into the metabolic impact of lipid nanoparticle vaccine delivery usingOrbiSIMS".

Metabolomics of the cellular environment are commonly investigated using conventional mass spectrometry (MS) techniques such as liquid chromatography MS (LC-MS). Reece's work reported the assignment of lipids and metabolites within the cellular environment without the need for complex sample preparation or labelling. Upon incubation of a lipid nanoparticle (LNP), the metabolic impact of the LNP can be investigated in situ using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Utilising the gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) leads to production of endogenous molecular ions associated with the cell and the exogenous compounds related to the LNP. This work led to the identification of significant metabolic pathways of interest with corresponding chemical compounds associated with them. This provides a wholistic approach for both spatial and chemical information of the impact of a LNP delivery vehicle to a conventional cell line, providing key insights into the metabolic impact of an LNP system.