www.spectroscopyonl ine.com36 Current Trends In Mass Spectrometry 19(5S) May 2004

T he 52nd American Society for Mass Spectrometry(ASMS) conference on Mass Spectrometry and AlliedTopics will be held May 23–27 at the GaylordOpryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. Like its predeces-

sors, this year’s conference will be geared toward promotingand disseminating knowledge of MS and its allied topics, withthe overall goal being to provide new knowledge that will helpfurther the advancement of techniques and instrumentationin MS, as well as fundamental research in chemistry, geology,the biological sciences and physics.

As a service to the 5200 expected attendees, Spectroscopypresents the following conference preview.

Short CoursesThe presentation of short courses once again will be at theheart of this year’s conference. Taught by volunteer instruc-tors, the informative classes are designed for audiences of vary-ing skill levels and areas of study, and range from the study ofbasic theories to the use of specific applications.

“Members suggest short courses, and that’s how they’re devel-oped,” says Judith A. Sjoberg, executive director of ASMS.“Most ofthe courses, with the exception of one, are repeatsfrom previous years. They’re always sold out.

“Usually, when we take on a short course, it’swith the understanding it will run for at leastthree years,” she continues.“Some of these cours-es have been offered for longer than that, withsome of those having changes in instructors.”

Here is an overview of this year’s 10 short courses:

• FT MS: Principles and Applications: RobertT. McIver, Gary Siuzdak, Jon Amster, and Sunia Afzaal Trauger,Instructors. This course is intended for individuals who have noprior knowledge of Fourier-transform mass spectrometry (FTMS). It also should prove to be useful for those who have mod-erate experience with FT MS, but would like to develop a betterunderstanding of its underlying fundamental principles.

• Interpretation of Mass Spectra: Lawrence R. Phillips, JohnH. Callahan, Peter Dreifus, James Kelley, and Amina Woods,Instructors. An introductory-level course on the qualitativeinterpretation of mass spectra of organic, biological, and bio-chemical compounds. The course will be taught through theuse of practical examples and is targeted at those individuals

with knowledge of organic chemistry and organic structures.• LC–MS: The Techniques of Electrospray and APCI:

Robert D. Voyksner, Instructor. One of the longest runningcourses at ASMS, it is designed for chromatographers or massspectrometrists who want to be successful in solving problemsby LC–MS. The course will cover the atmospheric pressureionization (API) techniques of electrospray ionization (ESI),pneumatically assisted electrospray, and atmospheric pressurechemical ionization (APCI) using single quadrupole, triplequadrupole, and ion trap mass analyzers.

• MALDI-TOF MS: Fundamentals and Applications:Martha M. Vestling and Kevin G. Owens, Instructors. Now in itsfifth year, this course discusses the basic instrumentation andtheory of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) MS. An overview of current instrumenta-tion and practices will be presented, including a discussion ofthe relative advantages of linear and reflectron instruments.

• Mass Spectrometry in Drug Discovery: From TargetIdentification to IND Enabling Studies: Daniel B. Kassel andMike S. Lee, Instructors. In its first year as part of the confer-ence, this course will focus on providing a firm understanding

of the drug discovery process, from initial targetidentification through investigational new drug(IND) enabling studies. It also will teach atten-dees how to learn from, and apply, the numeroustypes of MS studies carried out to support thesedrug discovery efforts.

• MS-MS: Fundamentals and Applications:Vicki Wysocki, Arpad Somogyi, GeorgeTsaprailis, Linda Breci, and Paul Haynes,Instructors. This course is targeted at new users

of MS-MS who have basic knowledge of MS. Participants alsoshould be familiar with modern ionization methods, such asESI and MALDI, and understand the basic principles of massanalysis with different mass analyzers.

• Practical LC–MS: Jack Henion, Instructor. Another one ofthe conference’s longest running courses, it will cover com-mercially available and new approaches to accomplishingonline LC–MS analyses. The course will provide introductionsto HPLC and MS, and themes common to all LC–MS inter-faces, with an emphasis on those phenomena that are impor-tant to successful LC–MS experiments. A summary of the his-torical development, basic hardware, and representative exam-

The 52nd Annual ASMSConference Goes CountryNashville plays host to this month’s event.

Joseph Walsh, Spectroscopy Assistant Editor

����

www.spectroscopyonl ine.com38 Current Trends In Mass Spectrometry 19(5S) May 2004

ples of earlier techniques, which includecontinuous flow fast atom bombard-ment (FAB), thermospray, and particlebeam LC–MS, also will be presented.

• Proteins and Peptides:Characterizations by MS–MS-MS:Arthur Moseley, Kevin Blackburn, andDoug Sheeley, Instructors. A fairly new,advanced-level course, this is targeted atscientists who want to learn specifictechniques for the MS and MS-MS char-acterization of peptides and proteins.Fundamental aspects of protein chem-istry, sample preparation, MS (hardwareand software), and sample introductionsystems (nanospray, capillary LC, LC-LC, and CE) will all be discussed.

• Quadrupole Ion Trap MassSpectrometry and Tandem MassSpectrometry: Gary L. Glish, RichardVachet, and Nathan Yates, Instructors.This course will present the ion physics,ion chemistry, and aspects of instrumen-tation necessary for a basic understand-ing of modern quadrupole ion trap MSand quadrupole ion trap tandem MS.

• Quantitative Mass Spectrometry:Cecilia Basic, Robert Bethem, andDwight E. Matthews, Instructors. Anintroductory/intermediate level course, itwill explore the principles of quantitativeMS. A general discussion of principleswill take place, and will be reinforcedthrough exemplary papers in the field.

Lectures and Oral SessionsThe conference’s initial plenary lecturewill be presented by Midwest ResearchInstitute’s David R. Franz, and is titled,“Overview of the Bioterrorism Threatand What We Can Do to Prepare andRespond.”

“We had a couple of lectures onantiterrorism at last year’s conference [inMontreal, Canada],” Sjoberg says,“because forensics is really a growingaspect of the conference.”

While forensics is becoming anincreasingly prominent topic at ASMS,as evident also by the oral sessions,“MS Investigations of Terrorism,” and“MS Investigations of CriminalActivities,” the event has been, and con-tinues to be, heavily pharmaceuticaland biochemistry centered.

“The conference used to be more tech-nique driven,” Sjoberg says. “Everyone

wanted to knowabout LC–MS,electrospray, andthose techniques.Now it’s moreapplication driven.

“The impact ofthe pharmaceuti-cal, proteins andpeptides, and drugmetabolism issuesis very, verystrong,” she con-tinues. “This hasbeen the trend for about the last five years.”

With this in mind, here is a samplingof the oral sessions that will be offeredat this year’s conference:

• “Instruments and Methods forStudying Peptide Fragmentation”

• “MS in Drug Discovery andDevelopment ADME Studies”

• “Changes in Protein Abundances inCell Growth and Disease”

• “Protein Conformation and Binding”• “Membrane Proteins and

Hydrophobic Peptides”• “Protein Analytics: Top-Down

Sequencing”• “Protein Phosphorylation Analyzed

by MS”• “Mechanisms of Peptide

Fragmentation”

“People should take away new knowl-edge from the conference,” Sjoberg says.“This is a very knowledge-based confer-ence. People come to hear and see what’sgoing on and to check out new tech-niques and new applications.”

AwardsThe presentation of the conference’sannual awards — The Award for aDistinguished Contribution in MassSpectrometry and The Biemann Medal— will help honor the past, present, andfuture of MS.

The Award for a DistinguishedContribution to Mass Spectrometryrecognizes a focused, singular achieve-ment in, or contribution to, fundamen-tal or applied MS. The honoree is beingrecognized for having made a contribu-tion that has had a significant impact onthe fundamental understanding and/or

practice of MS.Michael T. Bowers of the University of

California at Santa Barbara will be pre-sented with this year’s honor for hisAverage Dipole Orientation (ADO) theo-ry. Bowers’ pioneering theory, whichyielded an estimated collision rate within10% of the experimentally determinedvalue, continues to provide the theoreti-cal framework for all ion molecule reac-tion rate coefficient determinations some25 years after its introduction.

While Bowers will be presented withan award that recognizes his time-testedcontributions, The Biemann Medal, pre-sented in honor of Professor KlausBiemann, recognizes a significantachievement in basic or applied MS madeby an individual early in their career.

This year’s winner is John R. Yates ofScripps Research Institute for his achieve-ments and contributions to proteinsequence analysis by tandem MS throughhis development of software methods tosearch proteins and nucleotide databaseswith tandem mass spectral data on pep-tides generated by enzymatic digestion ofproteins in complex mixtures. Hismethod has made the automated high-throughput analysis of the proteins inmacromolecular complexes possible, andhas revolutionized the approach of com-prehensive protein analysis in cell cultureand tissues by MS. ■

For more information, contact ASMS at:2019 Galisteo St., Building I-1Santa Fe, NM 87505Tel: (505) 989-4517Fax: (505) 989-1073E-mail: office@asms.orgwww.asms.org

ASMS Conference Preview