PathologyPATHOLOGY I n mass spectrometric imaging molecules such as proteins, peptides lipids and metabolites are directly measured from tissue sections without the need for molecular probes or labels. Hundreds of thousands of compounds can be measured simultaneously. While different ionization techniques can be used, MALDI (matrix-assisted laser-desorption/ionization) is by far most commonly used. Both frozen and FFPE material can be analyzed. In recent years, the technique has been increasingly used in histopathology and oncology research. Because no label is needed, this technique allows to detect new biomarkers and leads to new insights into tumor heterogeneity. The molecular phenotypes detected by the MALDI technique can be correlated with histology and often allow to distinguish tissue features that look morphologically identical. The rapiflex MALDI Tisssuetyper - unprecedented speed and robustness The rapiflex MALDI tissuetyper is a novel MALDI-time of flight instrument that was specifically designed for the challenges of MALDI imaging. If features the novel smartbeam 3D laser with a repetition rate of 10 kHz and a focus diameter of less than 5µm. In combination with moving mirrors that allow a precise positioning of the laser focus on the tissue it can scan up to 50 true non-overlapping pixels per second. This is considerably faster than the previous state-of-the-art system and makes it possible to either scan much larger images or many more samples than before. The scanning laser allows to systematically scan each complete pixel which increases the quality of the images. The rapifleX MALDI Tissuetyper is for research use only. LABBOOK 2015 The new rapifleX MALDI Tissuetyper for mass spectrometric imaging 40 LABBOOK 2015