Accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS, has been used for decades for radiocarbon dating and has since been used widely in biomedical research. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, medical scientist Mike Malfatti says they’re now using smaller AMS technology that’s dedicated to biomedical studies.

"The AMS technology has come a long way since when we first started. Before it was a very big instrument that took up a warehouse-size room. Well, the technology has changed where machines are shrinking. And we’re hoping as things develop further we can have AMS machines that can be used in the clinics."

The National Institutes of Health is funding biomedical AMS work, including developing a test to predict how people will respond to chemotherapeutic drugs.

"This particular collaboration that we’re doing with UC Davis, we’re looking at the different chemotherapeutic drugs, how people respond to them, why some people will respond and some people won’t respond."