“…In contrast, ambient ionization mass spectrometry (AIMS) efficiently detects organic and biological molecules under ambient conditions and without sample pretreatment. Several AIMS methods have been used for MSI analysis, such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), 10–13 electrospray laser desorption ionization (ELDI), 1,2 probe electrospray ionization (PESI), 3 laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI), 4,5 and low‐temperature plasma probe (LTP) 14 . The differences in MSI analysis between AIMS and MALDI include (1) minimal or no sample pretreatment required for AIMS‐MSI, with homogenous matrix deposition on tissue samples being necessary for MALDI‐MSI, and (2) desorption and ionization in AIMS being performed under ambient conditions, unlike for MALDI, where desorption/ionization is performed in a vacuum.…”