Isotopic labeling analytically distinguishes a chosen element or compound, its metabolites, and its combinations without regard to its chemical properties, providing a generality of application unavailable from many common analytical methods. AMS provides high sensitivity for measuring long lived isotopes in biological systems, from cells to humans. AMS technology and accessibility for biological applications are improving, but AMS is still called upon primarily in special circumstances. An understanding of those circumstances points to the areas of bioscience that require AMS capabilities and for which development of new technologies are warranted. Studies of human metabolism and distribution must be done with the lowest possible radiation and toxic risks. AMS research showed the importance of low abundance isotopes for toxicology, nutrition research, and drug discovery. Commercial facilities confirm the economic importance of these applications, and new laser-based instruments are in development to widen these uses. Studies of specific biological structures make use of AMS sensitivity for tracing natural isotope variations or labeled monomers in very small isolates. Determinations of cellular turnover mechanisms will guide the coming revolution in regenerative medicine. Studies of low probability events require the wide dynamic range of AMS to quantify rare events such as DNA modification that can have serious health effects. Finally, studies of cellular processes require quantitative analysis of biochemical variations at single cell levels. Metabolite and pathway profiles of individual, highly labeled, cells are possible with AMS, once efficient and comprehensive procedures are defined. The state and future of AMS in bioscience is reviewed in relation to the presentations in this workshop. This work was performed in part under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48.
See more of AMS in Low Dose Bioscience Workshop
See more of The 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (September 5-10, 2005)