A new detector combines a laser with a mass spectrometer to provide on the spot analysis that researches hope will have applications ranging from evaluating a tumor as it is removed, to quickly detecting explosives in luggage.
The laser vaporizes tiny samples hat can be instantly analyzed by the spectrometer, and can be used even on living organisms, the US team said on Thursday.
Mr. Akos Vertes, a researcher and a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at George Washington University said they are taking about less than a second for an analysis.
Vertes and graduate student Peter Nemes say they have used their system to find a drug sample in urine, to detect the chemical changes that accompany color changes in a living plant leaf and to find explosives residue on a currency note.
The university has filed for a patent on the system, which Vertes said is the first to use a laser for such instant analysis of living tissue.
Called laser ablation electro spray ionization, or LAESI, it requires a desk sized space in a laboratory.
But smaller spectrometers and lasers could make it portable, Vertes said.
Currently surgeons send samples to a pathology lab, but this system could save precious minutes, he said further.
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