Chemistry Seminar: Autumn Qiu, Michigan State University

Autumn Qiu Michigan State University Spatial Metabolomics and Toxicology Research with Mass Spectrometry Imaging Host: Carrie McDonough Friday, September 18, 2026 12:30 p.m. Mellon Institute Conference Room 348 Abstract: Cells and tissues exhibit biological heterogeneity that underlies their functions and responses to environmental exposures. Elucidating the spatial molecular landscape of heterogeneous biological systems represents a frontier in biological research. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) represents a powerful toolkit to map the spatial distribution of elements and molecules in situ, leveraging both spatial resolution and molecular and elemental specificity. Our lab applies MSI, primarily matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-MS, to characterize spatial chemical landscapes in host-microbe systems and map toxicity responses in tissues. In this seminar, I will describe our recent work in mapping metabolites in mouse colon and nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as enabling fast and in-situ analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of emerging environmental contaminants, using MALDI-MS coupled with trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS). Bio: Prof. Tian (Autumn) Qiu earned her BS in Chemistry from Peking University (2012) and PhD from the University of Minnesota (2018). Her PhD studied nanotoxicity mechanisms in environmental bacteria in Prof. Christy Haynes’ lab and the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. She was a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working with Prof. Jonathan Sweedler on D-amino acids in the microbiome-gut-brain axis. She joined Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor in 2022. Her lab investigates interactions among environmental contaminants, microbial metabolism, and host responses using mass spectrometry, particularly MALDI-MS, integrated with animal models and toxicological analyses. She is a recipient of Society for Analytical Chemists