Mass spectrometry imaging is increasingly used in biological and translational research as it has the ability to determine the spatial distribution of hundreds of analytes in a sample. Being at the interface of proteomics/metabolomics and imaging, the acquired data sets are large and complex and often analyzed with proprietary software or in-house scripts, which hinder reproducibility. Open source software solutions that enable reproducible data analysis often require programming skills and are therefore not accessible to many MSI researchers.
We have integrated 18 dedicated mass spectrometry imaging tools into the Galaxy framework to allow accessible, reproducible, and transparent data analysis. Our tools are based on Cardinal, MALDIquant, and scikit-image and enable all major MSI analysis steps such as quality control, visualization, preprocessing, statistical analysis, and image coregistration. Further, we created hands-on training material for use cases in proteomics and metabolomics. To demonstrate the utility of our tools, we re-analyzed a publicly available N-linked glycan imaging dataset. By providing the entire analysis history online, we highlight how the Galaxy framework fosters transparent and reproducible research.
The Galaxy framework has emerged as a powerful analysis platform for the analysis of MSI data with ease of use and access together with high levels of reproducibility and transparency.

Keywords:

• mass spectrometry imaging
• maldi imaging
• spatially resolved mass spectrometry
• proteomics
• metabolomics
• galaxy
• computational workflows
• reproducibility

Read the peer-reviewed publication(s):

(PubMed: 31816088)

Additional information:

https://scicrunch.org/resolver/RRID:SCR_017410

https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/

https://usegalaxy.eu/u/melanie-foell/w/msi-workflow-bruker-xml-conversion-to-tabular-file

https://usegalaxy.eu/u/melanie-foell/w/bruker-spotlist-conversion-to-tabular-file

https://usegalaxy.eu/u/melanie-foell/w/co-registration-of-msi-image-and-real-image-with-landmarks

https://usegalaxy.eu/u/melanie-foell/w/msi-workflow-complete-n-glycan-analysis

https://usegalaxy.eu:/u/melanie-foell/h/re-analysis-of-pride-dataset-pxd009808---maldi-imaging-of-n-linked-glycans-in-murine-kidney-specimens

https://training.galaxyproject.org

Github links:

https://github.com/galaxyproteomics/tools-galaxyp

https://github.com/BMCV/galaxy-image-analysis

https://galaxyproject.github.io/training-material/

https://github.com/foellmelanie/docker-galaxy-msi