Iker Basabe Mendizabal
Doctoral fellow - Atomic & Mass Spectrometry - A&MS research unit (Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, UGent)
Principal investigator: prof. Frank Vanhaecke (PhD)
Research focus
Early research on orthopaedic metal-on-metal hip prostheses revealed significant release of metallic particulates into the peri-prosthetic tissue via mechanical wear and corrosion. Although the range of analytical techniques for the characterization of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) is expanding and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 10993) provides guidance for testing the biocompatibility of medical devices, there is an obvious need for analytical techniques capable ofsimultaneously revealing the quantitative distribution of metallic NPs and ions directly in biological tissues.
My research explores the coupling of state-of-the-art laser ablation instrumentation to a wide variety of ICP-mass spectrometers (LA-ICP-MS) to develop novel analytical methods for trace elemental and isotopic mapping and applying these methods in interdisciplinary contexts. It focuses on investigating the basic principles of LA-ICP-MS elemental mapping, specifically to achieve high-resolution elemental maps at a higher pixel acquisition rate up to 1 kHz.
In the context of cancer research LA.-ICP-MS mapping can be used to map tumorous tissues giving and added information about the elemental distribution and its potential
consequences.
Biography
I completed my bachelor’s in chemistry in the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao (Spain) and the master of Analytical and bioanalytical sciences in the university of Oviedo (Spain) in the years 2020 and 2022 respectively. Meanwhile I completed an 8-month internship in the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne (Switzerland) which mainly consisted on developing my master thesis relating multi elemental speciation of Fe, Cu and Zn in human milk and infant formula by online isotope dilution analysis. In October 2022 I started a PhD at the Atomic & Mass spectrometry research unit of Ghent University mainly focused on LA-ICP-MS and other hyphenated techniques to ICP-MS.