Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

In this presentation I will outline physical principles of two analytical techniques, the Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM) and Scanning Mass Spectrometry (SMS), which can be used to obtain the spatially resolved images of (bio/electro)chemically active interfaces. The mathematical models need to be employed for image interpretation and mapping measured quantities (e.g., an electrode current in SECM) to biochemically relevant quantities (e.g., kinetics of exocytotic signaling events in cellular communications), and I will review the key ideas/assumptions used for the model formulation and the main results of analysis and simulations. In conclusion, an alternative approach to spatially-resolved imaging based on the multi-probe array will be introduced along with intriguing opportunities and challenges for mathematical interpretation of such images.