Senior Technical Specialist (Digital Systems Architect) Honorary Lecturer in Cheminformatics Honorary Lecturer in Analytical Science alex.henderson @ manchester.ac.uk Personal webpage Follow @AlexHenderson00
PhD on Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Small Metallic Particles, UMIST, 1996 BSc in Chemistry, UMIST, 1988 Certificate in Mathematics, Open University, 2010 Certificate in Semantic Web Technologies, OpenHPI, 2013 Director of SurfaceSpectra Ltd. Director of The International Society for Clinical Spectroscopy

Research

My research interests lie in data reduction, working mainly with the results from IR (infra red spectroscopy) and ToF-SIMS (time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry) experiments in cell chemistry.

Chemometric and cheminformatic approaches are applied to spectra, 2D chemical images and 3D chemical hypercubes to understand the complex chemistries involved in cell structure, metabolism and drug interaction. Work carried out in parallel aims to develop visualisation tools for chemists and biologists working in this area.

In addition to my work in the FTIR field I also work on ToFSIMS data of tissue and inorganic materials as a member of John Vickerman’s research group

Teaching

I recently taught Instrumentation for Separation Science which was a module of our Analytical and Separation Science Masters programme. My lectures covered the interpretation of mass spectrometric data.

Previously I taught Database Design and Programming on the School of Chemistry’s Cheminformatics Masters programme.

Commercial

I am a director of SurfaceSpectra Ltd. and also write their software.
Director of The International Society for Clinical Spectroscopy

Other

Recognised UK National Expert

International Standard Organisation (ISO), Technical Committee 201 Surface Chemical Analysis.

• TC 201/SC 1 Terminology
• TC 201/SC 2 General procedures
• TC 201/SC 3 Data management and treatment
• TC 201/SC 6 Secondary ion mass spectrometry

Conference organising committees

• 59th IUVSTA Workshop Surface Chemical Analysis – Improving Data Interpretation by Multivariate and Informatics Techniques
  Island of Trinidad, 2010 (Scientific Committee)
• The 6th International SPEC conference
  Manchester 2010 (Local Organising Committee)
• The 15th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS XV)
  Manchester 2005 (Local Organising Committee)

Links

Here are links to articles I have found particularly interesting/useful.

• How Many Structures Can You Generate From A Molecular Formula?
  Antony Williams, a member of the ChemSpider initiative.

Publications

50	Infrared micro-spectroscopy coupled with multivariate and machine learning techniques for cancer classification in tissue: a comparison of classification method, performance, and pre-processing technique Dougal Ferguson, Alex Henderson, Elizabeth F. McInnes, Rob Lind, Jan Wildenhain and Peter Gardner Analyst (2022)
49	Exploring AdaBoost and Random Forests machine learning approaches for infrared pathology on unbalanced data sets Jiayi Tang, Alex Henderson and Peter Gardner Analyst 146 (2021) 5880-5891
48	Clinical Applications of Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy: State of Play and Future Challenges Matthew J. Baker, Hugh Byrne, John M. Chalmers, Peter Gardner, Royston Goodacre, Alex Henderson, Sergei Kazarian, Francis L. Martin, Julian Moger, Nick Stone and Josep Sulé-Suso Analyst 143 (2018) 1735–1757
47	Quantum Cascade Laser Spectral Histopathology: Breast Cancer Diagnostics Using High Throughput Chemical Imaging Michael J. Pilling, Alex Henderson and Peter Gardner Analytical Chemistry 89 (2017) 7348–7355
46	Infrared spectral histopathology using haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained glass slides: a major step forward towards clinical translation Michael J. Pilling, Alex Henderson, Jonathan H. Shanks, Michael D. Brown, Noel W. Clarke and Peter Gardner Analyst 142 (2017) 1258-1268
45	FTIR imaging of the molecular burden around Aβ deposits in an early-stage 3-Tg-APP-PSP1-TAU mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease Artur Dawid Surowka, Michael Pilling, Alex Henderson, Herve Boutin, Lidan Christie, Magdalena Szczerbowska-Boruchowska and Peter Gardner Analyst 142 (2017) 156-168
44	High throughput Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) spectral histopathology : a practical approach towards clinical translation Michael J Pilling, Peter Gardner, Alex Henderson, Michael D Brown, Benjamin Bird and Noel William Clarke Faraday Discuss. 187 (2016) 135-154
43	Evaluation of biomolecular distributions in rat brain tissues by means of ToF-SIMS using a continuous beam of Ar clusters Shusuke Nakano, Yuta Yokoyama, Satoka Aoyagi, Naoyuki Himi, John S. Fletcher, Nicholas P. Lockyer, Alex Henderson and John C. Vickerman Biointerphases 11 (2016) 02A307
42	Mass spectrometric imaging of brain tissue by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry – How do polyatomic primary beams C60+, Ar2000+, water-doped Ar2000+ and (H2O)6000+ compare? Irma Berrueta Razo, Sadia Sheraz (née Rabbani), Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 29 (2015) 1851–1862
41	Enhanced FTIR benchtop imaging of single biological cells Caryn Hughes, Alex Henderson, Mustafa Kansiz, Konrad Dorling, Melody Jimenez-Hernandez, Michael D Brown, Noel William Clarke and Peter Gardner Analyst 140 (2015) 2080–2085
40	Spatiotemporal lipid profiling during early embryo development of Xenopus laevis using dynamic Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) Imaging Hua Tian, John S. Fletcher, Raphael Thuret, Alex Henderson, Nancy Papalopulu, John C. Vickerman and Nicholas P. Lockyer Journal of Lipid Research 55 (2014) 1970-1980
39	Comparing C60+ and (H2O)n+ clusters for mouse brain tissue analysis Irma Berrueta Razo, Sadia Sheraz, Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 46 (2014) 136–139
38	Assessing the challenges of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis of blood serum Caryn Hughes, Michael Brown, Graeme Clemens, Alex Henderson, Geraldine Monjardez, Noel W. Clarke, Peter Gardner Journal of Biophotonics 7 (2014) 180–188
37	Multivariate Analysis of SIMS Spectra Alex Henderson in “TOF-SIMS: Materials Analysis by Mass Spectrometry”, 2nd edition, Eds. J.C. Vickerman and D. Briggs, SurfaceSpectra, Manchester and IM Publications, Chichester (2013) 449-484
36	Peptide structural analysis using continuous Ar cluster and C60 ion beams Satoka Aoyagi, John S. Fletcher, Sadia Sheraz (Rabbani), Tomoko Kawashima, Irma Berrueta Razo, Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer, John C. Vickerman Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 405 (2013) 6621-6628
35	The inherent problem of transflection-mode infrared spectroscopic microscopy and the ramifications for biomedical single point and imaging applications Paul Bassan, Joe Lee, Ashwin Sachdeva, Juliana Pissardini, Konrad M. Dorling, John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson and Peter Gardner Analyst 138 (2013) 144-157
34	ToF-SIMS as a tool for metabolic profiling small biomolecules in cancer systems Helen L. Kotze, Emily G. Armitage, John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Kaye J. Williams, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 45 (2013) 277-281
33	SIMS informatics Alex Henderson, Jimmy D. Moore and John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 45 (2013) 471-474
32	Peak picking as a pre-processing technique for imaging time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry Jimmy D. Moore, Alex Henderson, John S. Fletcher, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 45 (2013) 461-465
31	Time-of-flight SIMS as a novel approach to unlocking the hypoxic properties of cancer Emily G Armitage, Helen L Kotze, John S Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Kaye J Williams, Nicholas P Lockyer and John C Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 45 (2013) 282-285
30	FTIR microscopy of biological cells and tissue: data analysis using resonant Mie scattering (RMieS) EMSC algorithm Paul Bassan, Ashwin Sachdeva, Achim Kohler, Caryn Hughes, Alex Henderson, Jonathan Boyle, Jonathan H. Shanks, Michael Brown, Noel W. Clarke and Peter Gardner Analyst 137 (2012) 1370-1377
29	Interactive spatio-spectral analysis of three-dimensional mass-spectral (3DxMS) chemical images. Stephen E. Reichenbach, Xue Tian, Robert Lindquist, Qingping Tao, Alex Henderson and John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 43 (2011) 529-534
28	Three-dimensional mass spectral imaging of HeLa-M cells – sample preparation, data interpretation and visualisation. John S. Fletcher, Sadia Rabbani, Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer, John C. Vickerman Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 25 (2011) 925-932
27	Phenotypic profiling of keloid scars using FT-IR microspectroscopy reveals a unique spectral signature Katherine A. Hollywood, Marlies Maatje, Iqbal T. Shadi, Alex Henderson, Duncan Angus McGrouther, Royston Goodacre and Ardeshir Bayat Archives of Dermatological Research 302 (2010) 705-715
26	Factors influencing the discrimination and classification of prostate cancer cell lines by FTIR microspectroscopy. T. J. Harvey, E. Gazi, A. Henderson, R. D. Snook, N. W. Clarke, M. Brown and P. Gardner Analyst 134 (2009) 1083-1091
25	Classification and Cluster Analysis of Complex Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for Biological Samples Stephen E. Reichenbach, Xue Tian, Qingping Tao, and Alex Henderson International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-09) (2009) 78
24	Visualization and analysis of large three-dimensional hyperspectral images Stephen E. Reichenbach, Xue Tian, Robert Lindquist, Qingping Tao, Alex Henderson, and John C. Vickerman Proceedings of SPIE 7341 (2009) 734108
23	A comparison of PCA and MAF for ToF-SIMS image interpretation. Alex Henderson, John S. Fletcher, John C. Vickerman Surf. Interface Anal. 41 (2009) 666-674
22	Explanatory multivariate analysis of ToF-SIMS spectra for the discrimination of bacterial isolates. Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, John S. Fletcher, Roger M. Jarvis, Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer, Royston Goodacre and John C. Vickerman Analyst 134 (2009) 2352-2360
21	Classification of fixed urological cells using Raman tweezers. Harvey, Tim J.; Hughes, Caryn; Ward, Andrew D.; Faria, Elsa Correia; Henderson, Alex; Clarke, Noel W.; Brown, Mick D.; Snook, Richard D.; Gardner, Peter. J. Biophotonics 2 (2009) 47-69
20	Efficient encoding and rapid decoding for interactive visualization of large three-dimensional hyperspectral chemical images. Reichenbach, Stephen E.; Henderson, Alex; Lindquist, Robert; Tao, Qingping. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 23 (2009) 1229-1233
19	Uncovering new challenges in bio-analysis with ToF-SIMS. John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Gregory X. Biddulph, Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 1264-1270
18	Exploratory analysis of TOF-SIMS data from biological surfaces. Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, John S. Fletcher, Alex Henderson, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 1599-1602
17	A New Dynamic in Mass Spectral Imaging of Single Biological Cells. John S. Fletcher, Sadia Rabbani, Alex Henderson, Paul Blenkinsopp, Steve P. Thompson, Nicholas P. Lockyer, and John C. Vickerman Analytical Chemistry 80 (2008) 9058-9064
16	Spectral discrimination of live prostate and bladder cancer cell lines using Raman optical tweezers Tim J. Harvey, Elsa Correia Faria, Alex Henderson, Ehsan Gazi, Andrew D. Ward, Noel W. Clarke, Michael D. Brown, Richard D. Snook and Peter Gardner Journal of Biomedical Optics 13 (2008) 064004
15	Discrimination of prostate cancer cells by reflection mode FTIR photoacoustic spectroscopy. Harvey, Tim J.; Henderson, Alex; Gazi, Ehsan; Clarke, Noel W.; Brown, Mick; Faria, Elsa Correia; Snook, Richard D.; Gardner, Peter. Analyst 132 (2007) 292-295
14	The Static SIMS Library version 4 J.C. Vickerman, D. Briggs and A. Henderson SurfaceSpectra, Manchester (2006) CDROM
13	Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bulk film analysis using C60 +, Au3 +, and Au+ primary ion beams. Conlan, X. A.; Gilmore, I. S.; Henderson, A.; Lockyer, N. P.; Vickerman, J. C. Applied Surface Science 252 (2006) 6562-6565
12	ToF-SIMS studies of Bacillus using multivariate analysis with possible identification and taxonomic applications. Thompson, C. E.; Ellis, J.; Fletcher, J. S.; Goodacre, R.; Henderson, A.; Lockyer, N. P.; Vickerman, J. C. Applied Surface Science 252 (2006) 6719-6722
11	Rapid discrimination of the causal agents of urinary tract infection using ToF-SIMS with chemometric cluster analysis. Fletcher, John S.; Henderson, Alexander; Jarvis, Roger M.; Lockyer, Nicholas P.; Vickerman, John C.; Goodacre, Royston. Applied Surface Science 252 (2006) 6869-6874
10	Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, SIMS XV. (Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference held in UK 12-16 September 2005.) [In: Appl. Surf. Sci., 2006; 252(19)]. Vickerman, John C.; Gilmore, Ian S.; Dowsett, Mark G.; Henderson, Alex; Editors. Applied Surface Science 252 (2006) 922 pp.
9	Summary of ISO/TC 201 standard: XXII. ISO 22048: 2004 – surface chemical analysis – information format for static secondary ion mass spectrometry. Gilmore, I. S.; Seah, M. P.; Henderson, A. Surface and Interface Analysis 36 (2004) 1642-1644
8	ToF-SIMS Studies of Sulfuric Acid Hydrate Films. Fletcher, John S.; Henderson, Alex; Horn, Andrew B.; Vickerman, John C. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 108 (2004) 5960-5966
7	Identification of surface molecular hydrates on solid sulfuric acid films. Couling, Suzanne B.; Nash, Karen L.; Fletcher, John; Henderson, Alex; Vickerman, John C.; Horn, Andrew B. Journal of the American Chemical Society 125 (2003) 13038-13039
6	The role of surface molecular hydrates in the heterogeneous interaction of NH3 with sulfuric acid monohydrate. Nash, Karen L.; Sayer, Robert M.; Couling, Suzanne B.; Fletcher, John; Henderson, Alex; Vickerman, John C.; Horn, Andrew B. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 5 (2003) 5101-5107
5	The Static SIMS Library version 3 J.C. Vickerman, D. Briggs and A. Henderson SurfaceSpectra, Manchester (2002) CDROM
4	NeuroSpectraNet – a self-organising neural network mechanism for interpretation of complex SSIMS spectra. Sanni, O. D.; Henderson, A.; Briggs, D.; Vickerman, J. C. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, SIMS XII, Proceedings of the International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, 12th, Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 5-10, 1999 (2000) 805-808
3	The Static SIMS Library version 2 J.C. Vickerman, D. Briggs and A. Henderson SurfaceSpectra, Manchester (1999) pp1200 & CDROM
2	The Static SIMS Library J.C. Vickerman, D. Briggs and A. Henderson SurfaceSpectra, Manchester (1997) pp1000 & CDROM
1	The effect of corona treatments on the hygral expansion of wool worsted fabrics. Carr, C. M.; Dodd, K. J.; Connors, M. A.; Henderson, A.; Vickerman, J. Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists 110 (1994) 383-6

Acknowledged in…

Here are links to articles in which I have been acknowledged.

	Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectral discrimination of brain tumour severity from serum samples James R. Hands, Konrad M. Dorling, Peter Abel, Katherine M. Ashton, Andrew Brodbelt, Charles Davis, Timothy Dawson, Michael D. Jenkinson, Robert W. Lea, Carol Walker and Matthew J. Baker Journal of Biophotonics 7(3-4) (2014) 189–199
	Effect of Substrate Choice and Tissue Type on Tissue Preparation for Spectral Histopathology by Raman Microspectroscopy Leanne M Fullwood, David M Griffiths, Katherine Ashton, Timothy Dawson, Robert W Lea, Charles Davis, Franck Bonnier, Hugh Byrne and Matthew J Baker Analyst 139 (2014) 446-454
	Single Cell Lipidomics: Characterizing and Imaging Lipids on the Surface of Individual Aplysia Californica Neurons with Cluster SIMS Melissa K. Passarelli, Andrew G. Ewing and Nicholas Winograd Analytical Chemistry 85(4) (2013) 2231–2238
	Imaging of metabolites using secondary ion mass spectrometry Emily G. Armitage, Helen L. Kotze, Nicholas P. Lockyer Metabolomics 9 (2013) s102-s109
	ToF-SIMS PC-DFA analysis of prostate cancer cell lines. M.J. Baker, E. Gazi, M.D. Brown, N.W. Clarke, J.C. Vickerman and N.P. Lockyer Appl. Surf. Sci. 255 (2008) 1084-1087
	TOF-SIMS investigation of Streptomyces coelicolor, a mycelial bacterium. Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, John S. Fletcher, Nicholas P. Lockyer and John C. Vickerman Appl. Surf. Sci. 255 (2008) 922-925
	Subsurface Biomolecular Imaging of Streptomyces coelicolor Using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, John S. Fletcher, Roy Goodacre, Nicholas P. Lockyer, Jason Micklefield, and John C. Vickerman Analytical Chemistry 80 (2008) 1942-1951
	Depth Profiling Brain Tissue Sections with a 40 keV C60+ Primary Ion Beam. Emrys A. Jones, Nicholas P. Lockyer, John C. Vickerman Analytical Chemistry 80 (2008) 2125-2132
	TOF-SIMS 3D Biomolecular Imaging of Xenopus laevis Oocytes Using Buckminsterfullerene (C60) Primary Ions. John S. Fletcher, Nicholas P. Lockyer, Seetharaman Vaidyanathan, John C. Vickerman Analytical Chemistry 79 (2007) 2199-2206

Named on…

Here are links to grants on which I have been funded.

2014	Clinical Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy Network (CLIRSPEC) Peter Gardner (PI), Matthew Baker (UCLAN) EPSRC £188k February 2014 – January 2017
2013	Towards disease diagnosis through spectrochemical imaging of tissue architecture. Peter Gardner (PI) EPSRC £324k August 2013 – July 2016
2013	Automated breast cancer screening: An interdisciplinary pilot study bringing together chemical imaging, cancer pathology and machine learning to produce a next generation healthcare technology. Peter Gardner (PI), Jonathan Shapiro, Kaye Williams and Michael Lisanti University of Manchester Research Institute (UMRI) – Pump Priming Programme £26k
2013	Application of single cell metabolite profiling to optimisation of stem cell bioprocessing A.J. Dickson (PI), K.E. Cosgrove, M.J. Dunne, R. Goodacre, N.P. Lockyer BBSRC £564k
2011	MaDAM into Sustainable Service (MiSS) Lorraine Beard, PI (Head of Information Services, JRUL), Project Manager June Finch JISC £245k + £730k institutional support October 2011 – March 2013 (extension of the MaDAM project)
2011	Infrared Imaging for Diagnosis and Prediction of the Biopotental of Low and Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer Gardner (PI), Brown, Clarke EPSRC £476k April 2011 – March 2014
2011	MIB CDFA – Application of novel imaging technologies towards quantitative analytical phenotyping of single cells Flitsch (PI), Goddard, Vickerman, Bayat, Westerhoff, Yuan, Webb, Gardner, Fielden, Goodacre, Lockyer, Fletcher, Blanch EPSRC £201k January 2011 – January 2012
2009	A new dynamic in mass spectral imaging for biological systems Vickerman (PI), Lockyer, Fletcher EPSRC £740k June 2009 – May 2012
2009	A combined micro fluidic single cell SRIR microscopy stage for use at Diamond Gardner (PI), Cinque, Fielden, Goddard EPSRC £170k January 2009 – December 2012
2007	Enhancing new developments in ToF-SIMS through researcher exchanges Vickerman, Lockyer, Webb (Surrey) EPSRC Collaborating for Success Through People Award £110k
2005	New Developments in ToF-SIMS Surface Mass Spectrometry with ATR-IR Spectroscopy Vickerman (PI), Lockyer, Gardner, Horn, Goodacre; Webb and Kirkby (Surrey). EPSRC Critical Mass Award £2M October 2005 – Sept 2009
2004	A High Resolution ToF-SIMS Microscope for Biology Vickerman (PI), Lockyer, Goodacre and Kell. BBSRC £428k August 2004 – December 2007
2000	Development of ToF-SIMS instrumentation and methodology for chemical microscopy of cellular systems Vickerman, Lockyer and Stephens EPSRC Life Sciences Interface £312k June 2000 – June 2003
1996	Wiley Static SIMS Library – Ongoing funding for updates £13,000/year
1994	Extension to Static SIMS Library Grant July 1994 to May 1995 – John Wiley & Sons, £17,000
1992	Support from John Wiley & Sons for the launch costs (>£50k) of an International Static SIMS Database.

Other links…

LinkedIn profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhendersoninmanchester

Mass Spectrometry @ Manchester
http://massspecmanchester.org/

SimonCGI
http://www.simoncgi.com/

John Vickerman’s Research Group
Surface Analysis Research Centre

CLIRSPEC Network
http://clirspec.org/

Claire Tindale
http://www.axisweb.org/p/clairetindale/

Paul Bassan’s company: London Spectroscopy
http://www.london-spectroscopy.com/