: an R package for annotation and interpretation of mass spectrometry imaging data for lipidomics.

INTRODUCTION

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) experiments result in complex multi-dimensional datasets, which require specialist data analysis tools.

OBJECTIVES

We have developed an R package for analysing and interpreting data from MSI of lipids in tissue.

METHODS

produces single ion images, performs multivariate statistics and provides putative lipid annotations based on accurate mass matching against generated lipid libraries.

RESULTS

Classification of tissue regions with high spectral similarly can be carried out by principal components analysis (PCA) or -means clustering.

CONCLUSION

is an open-source tool for the analysis and statistical interpretation of MSI data, and is particularly useful for lipidomics applications.