2025 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 2-7
The 49th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry (JSBMS) featured the 3rd International Joint Symposium with Mass Spectrometry: Applications to the Clinical Lab (MSACL), marking the first in-person collaboration. Dr. Arash Zarrine-Afsar, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, presented “10-Second Cancer Diagnosis with Picosecond Infrared Laser Mass Spectrometry (PIRL-MS),” highlighting PIRL-MS technology. This method combines two innovations: PIRL-DIVE (picosecond infrared laser ablation/desorption by impulsive vibrational excitation) for precise biomolecule extraction and ion detection without conventional sources for minimally invasive diagnostics. The PIRL-MS enables intact biomolecule analysis, tissue classification, and cancer biomarker detection with minimal tissue damage. These advancements make the PIRL-MS a promising intraoperative diagnostics and biomedical research tool. This mini-review focuses on the evolution of his method and briefly summarizes the discoveries and applications that led to this method.
