Mass Spectroscopy Focus Evolution not revolution but interesting all the same
Report on the 57th ASMS Conference, Philadelphia, Pa, USA May 31st - June 4th and the 18th IMSC, Bremen, Germany, September 1st - 4th 2009.
Once every 3 years both of the major meetings aimed at the mass spectrometry community are held. Not necessarily a bad situation but in days of reduced funds available both for practicising scientists and commercial activists it could lead to a choice of which to attend, however both organising committees have taken a pragmatic view on this and focussed on making the meetings affordable since without the end- users the commercial side of the proceedings will not contribute to the same degree. Members of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) were charged only $150 and this no doubt helped the attendance of conferees to be almost similar in number, ca 6,500, to the 2008 number.
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The number of exhibitors was slightly down but the corporate hospitality suite numbers reduced from 25 to 18 reflected some cost saving by the manufacturers and service providers. The International Mass Spectroscopy (IMSC) had a slightly higher tariff for attendees but early bird discounting no doubt helped the record breaking attendance to reach excess of 2,600 and a very healthy exhibition to be presented. The meeting was held in the city which houses the manufacturing bases of two of the major players in the Mass Spectrometry world, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Bruker Daltronik GmbH so the meeting was never going to suffer from a lack of ‘gravitas’.
The high proportion of students present at both meetings was a healthy sign that the thirst for knowledge continues and, particularly within the life sciences application areas, there is growing need for techniques that can help the – omics scientists. Another application field which has risen from the pack is that of the use within Clinical applications and as a diagnostic tool. It will be some time before the technique of LC/MS/MS becomes a regular tool within the armoury of the clinicians on a regular basis but the creation of dedicated products and supporting software options by most of the major manufactures recognises that here lies potential for the technique of Mass Spectroscopy.
The sheer number of different oral presentations, workshops tutorials, vendor presentations, exhibitor offerings and, at ASMS almost 3000 posters (almost 1200 at IMSC) means that attendees really do have to engage in some selective and well thought out time management in advance.
THE SCIENCE
A breakdown of the top level headings of the oral sessions showed that over 40% of all presentations were on topics concerning Life Science applications
Application areas where Mass Spectrometers are used have mushroomed over the last 10-15 years inversely as the price for Instruments in some sections has decreased. From the original community of high end magnetic sector devotees firstly the rise of environmental scientists using MS variants hooked to GC systems, quickly followed by life scientists using mainly LC at the front end, originating from proteomic backgrounds are now avid users and fuel the demand for manufactures to come up with new and innovative ionisation techniques, instrument designs and software to improve sensitivity and accuracy of the data. As ever much of this advancement comes with better understanding of the multi-disciplinary fundamentals essential to the basics of smashing samples with electronic beams and measuring to varying degrees of accuracy the fragments. Physics, Laser technology, material scientists are all involved at the ground level.
At the IMSC a breakdown of the top level headings of the oral sessions showed that over 40% of all presentations were on topics concerning Life Science applications, followed by almost equal proportions of the other five headings. This vividly illustrates the market segment that attracts the most attention and where manufacturers apply their resources. However’ for those not working in this area then it could be considered too focussed and much of the presented work was viewed as being fairly obvious and not particularly cutting edge.
Author Details:
Bernie Monaghan, Contributing Editor, Separations Science, International Labmate Ltd email:
bernie@intlabmate.com
Two oral presentations which did merit positive comment were those by Professor David Clemmer, Indiana University, USA on the topic of advances in ion mobility mass spectrometry and Michael O. Glocker, University Rostock, Rostock, Germany ‘Mass Spectrometric Epitope Analysis of Autoantigens and Applications to Autoimmune Disease Diagnostics’. Professor Clemmer had already given the plenary lecture that morning on ‘Developing High-Resolution Ion Mobility-MS techniques for the Analysis of Complex Mixtures’ and clearly struck a chord with some delegates.
One particular hot-topic which continued to cause discussion amongst delegates was the constant chase for even more accurate mass measurement and the manufacturers were particularly interested in receiving feedback on this. All manufacturers have a particular instrument which is aimed at those working on that particular aspect of mass spectrometry and it yet has several orders of magnitude to run.
AWARDS
Recognition of one’s contribution for the advancement of science in general should be the aim of all scientists. In this case the topic is Mass Spectroscopy. Awards from the ASMS committee for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectroscopy were made jointly to Professor Simon J. Gaskell from the University of Manchester, U and Professor Vicki H. Wysocki from the University of Arizona for their work on the ‘Mobile Proton Model’. The Biemann Medal was presented to Professor Neil L. Kelleher from the University of Illinois (Urbane- Champaign) for his work in the field of top-down proteomics. Finally the inaugural Ron Hites award for an outstanding research publication in the society’s journal (JAMAS) went to Professor Alison E. Ashcroft from Leeds University, UK.
Awards from the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation were made firstly to Professors Cathy Costello (Boston University School of Medicine, USA), Catherine Fenselau (University of Maryland) and Peter Roepstorff (University of Southern Denmark) with the Thomson Medal for their contributions to the development to Mass Spectrometry. Secondly for his contribution to Mass Spectrometry the Curt Brunnée award was made to Dr Aleaxander Makarov (Thermo Fisher Scientific).
Naturally with such a diversity of topics being discussed, it is difficult to obtain a consensus of opinion as to the most informative, interesting and ground breaking presentations during the week. Opinions ranged from wanting more discussion on accurate mass measurement to those thinking that the poster sessions contained more ground breaking innovative work than many of the oral presentations. Proteomics and metabonomics were judged to have been allocated the correct amount of time for discussion.
EXHIBITION
The annual ASMS meeting in early June is the focal point for many of the large manufacturers to make new product introductions and re-state their positioning in the market place to their customers.
The two events do have differing degrees of involvement when it comes to the role that the trade exhibition plays in the 5 days of knowledge dissemination. For the ASMS tradition has long dictated that in order to be offering a level playing field to corporate members only one booth of 10 x 10 feet is allowed per member in the official area and printed literature only is allowed to be distributed from that point. However the concept of hospitality suites where working demo units and plentiful supplies of solid and liquid refreshments go hand in hand is an integral part of the proceedings. Major manufacturers vie for the attention and attendance of conferees. The ASMS show is always held around the end of May/early June thus a fair proportion of the year remains, allowing manufacturers time to recoup some of their hospitality budget in the way of sales.
Consequently there was little new in the way of major new product introductions at IMSC for the global players but those whose main market is Europe took the opportunity
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