a software for elemental distribution bioimaging using LA-ICP-MS data

The authors thank the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq, Brasilia, Brazil), the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES, Brasilia, Brazil), and the INOU-16-05 project from the Provincial Council of Ourense for financial support and fellowships. Dr. Capelo acknowledges support given by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry LAQV which is financed by national funds from FCT/MEC (UID/QUI/50006/2013) and co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007265), and by the Unidade de Ciencias Biomoleculares Aplicadas-UCIBIO which is financed by national funds from FCT/MEC (UID/Multi/04378/2013) and co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007728). H. Lopez-Fernandez is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Xunta de Galicia. SING group thanks CITI (Centro de Investigacion, Transferencia e Innovacion) from University of Vigo for hosting its IT infrastructure.The spatial distribution of chemical elements in different types of samples is an important field in several research areas such as biology, paleontology or biomedicine, among others. Elemental distribution imaging by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is an effective technique for qualitative and quantitative imaging due to its high spatial resolution and sensitivity. By applying this technique, vast amounts of raw data are generated to obtain high-quality images, essentially making the use of specific LA-ICP-MS imaging software that can process such data absolutely mandatory. Since existing solutions are usually commercial or hard-to-use for average users, this work introduces LA-iMageS, an open-source, free-to-use multiplatform application for fast and automatic generation of high-quality elemental distribution bioimages from LA-ICP-MS data in the PerkinElmer Elan XL format, whose results can be directly exported to external applications for further analysis. A key strength of LA-iMageS is its substantial added value for users, with particular regard to the customization of the elemental distribution bioimages, which allows, among other features, the ability to change color maps, increase image resolution or toggle between 2D and 3D visualizations.publishersversionpublishe