MSiReader v1.0: Evolving Open-Source Mass Spectrometry Imaging Software for Targeted and Untargeted Analyses

AbstractA major update to the mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) software MSiReader is presented, offering a multitude of newly added features critical to MSI analyses. MSiReader is a free, open-source, and vendor-neutral software written in the MATLAB platform and is capable of analyzing most common MSI data formats. A standalone version of the software, which does not require a MATLAB license, is also distributed. The newly incorporated data analysis features expand the utility of MSiReader beyond simple visualization of molecular distributions. The MSiQuantification tool allows researchers to calculate absolute concentrations from quantification MSI experiments exclusively through MSiReader software, significantly reducing data analysis time. An image overlay feature allows the incorporation of complementary imaging modalities to be displayed with the MSI data. A polarity filter has also been incorporated into the data loading step, allowing the facile analysis of polarity switching experiments without the need for data parsing prior to loading the data file into MSiReader. A quality assurance feature to generate a mass measurement accuracy (MMA) heatmap for an analyte of interest has also been added to allow for the investigation of MMA across the imaging experiment. Most importantly, as new features have been added performance has not degraded, in fact it has been dramatically improved. These new tools and the improvements to the performance in MSiReader v1.0 enable the MSI community to evaluate their data in greater depth and in less time. Graphical Abstractᅟ