Solid phase microextraction (SPME) is a versatile, non-exhaustive sample preparation tool that has been demonstrated to be well-suited for facile and effective analysis of a broad range of compounds in a plethora of studies. A growing number of reports describing diverse SPME workflows for novel investigations in a variety of fields including diverse bioanalytical applications, among others, corroborate the applicability of this microextraction tool in the bioanalytical sciences. Important bioanalytical applications of SPME include high throughput, in vivo and on-site analysis, in vitro and in vivo metabolomics studies, pharmaceutical and biomedical research. Patient monitoring, metabolomics and biomarkers discovery are an integral part of medical diagnosis and biomedical research. However, tissue analysis remains the bottleneck of such studies due to the invasiveness of presently used sample collection based on biopsy, as well as the laborious and time-consuming sample preparation protocols. In the proposed technology, we have integrated in vivo sampling, sample preparation including global extraction of metabolites together with convenient coupling to analytical instrument. This approach based on a small sorbent coated flexible metal fiber format of solid phase microextraction was developed and evaluated during organ treatment and transplantation in pig model as well as applied to human organs.  In this chemical biopsy approach, only molecules of interests are extracted onto biocompatible sorbent from the investigated system, however tissue is not removed from the organ, just metabolites of interest.  When using extraction phase with appropriate chemical property and morphology, the analytes are enriched onto the sorbent with minimum of interferences collected.  Therefore, the direct coupling of the chemical biopsy probe to mass spectrometry is feasible.  Such hyphenation facilitates rapid on-site quantification of the compounds of interests resulting in possibility of close to real time monitoring.  This approach has potential in biological and clinical on-site investigations including bedside medical diagnosis.

Learning Objectives:

1. Provide understanding about microextraction approaches and their advantages compared to exhaustive extraction techniques.
2. To demonstrate potential of the SPME technology in biomedical research.