We show that the associated production of a prompt photon and a heavy-quark jet (charm or bottom) is a versatile process that provides us with the opportunity to study the structure of the proton and the nucleus (in proton-nucleus (p-A) collisions) as well as the mechanisms of heavy quark energy loss (in nucleus-nucleus (A-A) collisions). Future p-A measurements of this process at the LHC should allow one to disentangle the various nPDF sets currently available. In heavyion collisions, the

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... n transverse momentum can be used to gauge the initial energy of the massive parton which is expected to propagate through the dense QCD medium produced in those collisions. The two-particle final state provides a range of observables through the use of which a better understanding of parton energy loss processes in the massive quark sector can be achieved, as shown by the present phenomenological analysis carried out in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC.