Vall d'Hebron Talks by VHIR 'Elements and proteins imaging by LA-ICP-MS: medical and pharmaceutical research'

Speaker: Dr. Michaela Kuchynka, assistant professor at the Masaryk University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Chemical Drugs and Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry.

Dr. Kuchynka completed her Bachelor's degree in Analytical Chemistry and Management of Chemical Laboratories in 2012, followed by her Master’s and PhD degrees in Analytical Chemistry in 2015 and 2019, respectively, at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University. After her maternity leave in 2020, she received funding from the Career Restart Foundation for her research on the effectiveness of anticancer drugs.
In 2014, she spent one semester at the University of Vienna, and in 2016, she dedicated four months to research at the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin, focusing on the bio-imaging of metals in tissues.
During 2018 and 2019, she served as an evaluator for new university study programs in the Czech Republic at the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education. Additionally, she held the position of Vice-chairwoman of the Academic Senate at Masaryk University.
In 2021, Dr. Kuchynka was awarded the Prize of the spectroscopic society of Jan Marek Marci, securing third place for the best published work in the field of Spectroscopy. She has also received numerous awards for posters and presentations, as well as the Dean's award for her outstanding representation of the Faculty in research, development, or other creative activities abroad.
She has authored 17 articles published in indexed international journals, with her main publications focusing on: a) Detection and kinetics of Pb-based nanoparticles, b) Development of a protein detection method using LA-ICP-MS, and c) Investigation of the effectiveness of Pt-based anti-cancer drugs. Dr. Kuchynka has supervised 12 national and international students.

Abstract: 
In the last decades, increased interest in imaging of elements/metals/proteins distribution, mainly in pharmaceutical, biomedicine research, or life science with direct application of research to specific problem/disease [1-3]. The main emphasis of this contribution is to demonstrate the unique method of laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma and mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). It is a well-established method for multi-elemental analysis of elements at trace and ultra-trace. Nowadays, it is also starting to be used as a technique for the simultaneous specific determination of the protein of interest, which opens up the possibility of achieving the so-called multiplex analysis. Protein determination, protein imaging and finally their distribution in clinical samples are presented. 
Proteins are imaged using an immunohistochemical method (binding nanoparticle-labeled antibodies to a specific protein) and LA-ICP-MS. The main advantages of utilizing LA-ICP-MS are the acquisition of comprehensive (Metallo)proteomic information about the tissue of a given disease (in this case, cancer or stroke) or low detection limits compared to other conventionally employed protein imaging techniques in combination with multiplex analysis of one sample.

Host: Dr. Anna Rosell Novel, Head of group Neurovascular Diseases (VHIR)

Registre Online: https://gencat.zoom.us/j/91663930977​