Michigan State University advances its capabilities in elemental analysis and imaging across the life sciences.
Biomedical and technological expertise converge in the newly opened Elemental Health Institute (EHI) in the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building on MSU’s East Lansing campus. With a focus on identifying the roles of specific elements in life at all levels, EHI coordinates two key resources: the Quantitative Elemental Mapping for the Life Sciences (QE-Map) research center and the Quantitative Bio Element Analysis and Mapping (QBEAM) center. Together, these resources provide MSU researchers remarkable access to information about their research at the elemental level, promoting new insights into the fields of biotechnology, health, and disease.
The mission of the Elemental Health Institute (EHI) is to leverage emerging analytical technology and team science approaches to provide solutions to some of society's toughest challenges in the state of Michigan and around the world. EHI facilitates interdisciplinary collaborations across the fields of agriculture, animal science, chemistry, ecology, and human medicine to ensure a healthy future for everyone.
“The collaborative teams connected by this institute are discovering new roles of essential and toxic elements in normal and pathological states. Their work includes identification of highly durable diagnostics that enable better treatment of disorders in plants and animals, including infectious disease, metabolic disorders, cancer, infertility, and neurodegenerative disease” according to MSU Research Foundation Professor and Director of the Elemental Health Institute, Thomas O’Halloran.
EHI focuses on the emerging area of inorganic physiology and how metal-based drugs and diagnostic agents can be used to treat disease. Using cutting edge elemental imaging and analysis approaches, EHI includes teams of interdisciplinary biomedical researchers who work collaboratively to understand how metals regulate fundamental biological processes. The resources within EHI, QE-Map and QBEAM, use sophisticated technologies to evaluate the elemental signatures in cells and tissues, and how these elemental markers relate to health and disease.
EHI staff specialist Andrew Crawford views research posters with a guest at the EHI open house on October 4, 2023.
QE-Map was founded at Northwestern University (NU) in 2019 with a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and is now based at MSU as a NIH Biotechnology Research Resource Center with additional resources at the Argonne National Lab and NU. QE-Map features multiple imaging and detection methods, and these varied approaches allow researchers to measure the distribution of dozens of elements in biological samples. QBEAM, founded in 2021 at MSU by O’Halloran and Dr. Keith MacRenaris, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, further examines the relationship between metals and biological systems, including the development of therapeutics and to further understand the ecological and environmental consequences of metal exposure.
With some of the most advanced elemental analysis and mapping facilities in the nation, EHI welcomes researchers to collaborate and learn how to use these available resources to push new ground in elemental imaging and analysis research. Through consistent use of these resources, advanced methods for routine quantitative element mapping will drive many types of biological research and spur innovation.
Interim President Woodruff, EHI Director Thomas O’Halloran, and others in the QBEAM laboratory, October 4, 2023.