The emergence of metallomic applications in the late 1990’s has rapidly evolved and given rise to a need to determine a wide range of trace metal concentrations in various biological materials. In early studies samples of cancerous material were analyzed for metal tags to help scientists understand the effectiveness of key drug components, but as the science evolved there is now an increasing interest in determining the trace metal content of single cells, bio-fluids, and to understand the role of metals in human health and disease treatment. On top of this there is also considerable interest in the presence of metal nanoparticles in tissue material, as well as high resolution single µm resolution elemental image maps of biological samples generated by laser ablation.

Teledyne CETAC offers a variety of specialist liquid sample automation specifically engineered to allow the analysis of low volume bio-fluids and single cells by ICP-MS, as well as highly evolved laser ablation technology to enable high speed, high resolution quantifiable elemental concentration maps of many biomaterials to be produced.