Abstract

It is becoming more and more clear that each cell, even those of the same type, has a unique identity. This sophistication and the diversity of cell types in tissue are what are pushing the necessity for spatially distributed omics at the single-cell (SC) level. SC chemical assessment, which also provides considerable insight into biological, clinical, pharmacodynamic, pathological, and toxicity studies, is crucial to the investigation of cellular omics (genomics, metabolomics, etc.). Mass spectrometry (MS) as a tool to image and profile SCs and subcellular organelles facilitates novel technical expertise for biochemical and biomedical research, such as assessing the intracellular distribution of drugs and the biochemical diversity of cellular populations. It has been illustrated that atmospheric MS (AMS) is a valuable tool for the rapid, straightforward, and simple analysis of cellular and subcellular constituents and metabolites in their native state. This short review examines the advances in AMS on SC analysis that has been authored in recent years. The discussion also touches on typical SC AMS assessments and implementations.