Research Assistant Professor Timothy Garrett, Ph.D., is awarded a patent for a Rapid MALDI Matrix Coating Apparatus for Mass Spectrometric Tissue Imaging.

After a nearly seven-year disclosure process, on February 7, 2017, University of Florida Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine Research Assistant Professor Timothy J. Garrett, Ph.D., was awarded a patent by the UF Office of Technology Licensing for his invention of a Rapid Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) Matrix Coating Apparatus for Mass Spectrometric Tissue Imaging. Dr. Garrett was awarded this patent with fellow researcher William Pratt Mounfield, II, Ph.D., of the Walton Group at the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Dr. Mounfield was an undergraduate at the UF Department of Chemical Engineering when he and Dr. Garrett developed this technology.

According to Dr. Garrett, “The matrix coating apparatus is designed to rapidly apply matrix, a small organic compound that crystallizes onto the surface of tissue, making it amenable for mass spectrometric imaging studies. The major benefit of this apparatus is the speed and multiplexing capability for applying the matrix. It can coat up to five microscope slides in less time than current approaches coat one microscope slide.”

This is great news for Dr. Garrett and our Department. Please help us in congratulating him on this outstanding achievement.