Our Labs

Dr. Carter possesses a rare translational background that combines expertise in analytical chemistry and biomedical training. Her research interest centers on analytical chemistry, with a particular focus on mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) and how this is utilized at the chemistry-biology interface to probe disease mechanisms and pharmaceutical PK/PD studies. She has made seminal contributions in the fields of mass spectrometry and normal-tissue radiation injury. Dr. Carter published the first manuscript applying MSI to samples prepared using standard clinical pathology protocols, which was instrumental in driving MSI to the level of clinical application for lipidomic investigations. Dr. Carter developed methods that allowed high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging of inflated lung biopsy samples for biomarker and pharmaceutical studies. These investigations also led to the identification of a panel of key biological markers of radiation injury that spanned different pathologies and offered insights into the mechanism of action.

Mass Spectrometry Imaging Workflow

Dr. Carter is combining mass spectrometry imaging methods with in vitro functional studies to elucidate host response during tuberculosis (TB) infection. Her research focuses on the pathways involved in modulating host immune cells that lead to intracellular survival of the bacilli and granuloma formation.

Component Analysis of MSI TB Lung Data

Probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA with deterministic initialization). Data is separated into components based on similarities and differences in their spectral profiles. The spectral profiles in each component can then be mined to identify the molecules or compounds within each tissue region.