IMSC-2003

The 16th International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC) is being held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 31 August to 5 September this year. The venue is the impressive Edinburgh International Conference Centre, close to the centre of the city, which provides all the facilities necessary for a modern international conference. The organising committee stress their “forward looking programme”; they intend that the scientific programme will focus on the key contemporary and emerging aspects of applied mass spectrometry. Fundamental studies and related disciplines have not been ignored, but will find less coverage than may have been the case at previous IMSCs. A scientific partnership has been formed with The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF), who will organise many of the proteomics sections of the programme, emphasising one of the most important contemporary applications of mass spectrometry, in the health and life sciences.

The scientific programme will be themed, with a “hot topic” (or topics in parallel) being chosen each day to be covered with invited and contributed oral presentations and poster contributions. Each themed segment will culminate with an interactive workshop and discussion. Posters featuring outstanding late breaking results will be accepted up to the last minute, at the discretion of the organising committee.

A major exhibition will accompany the conference, with a range of promotional options for large and small manufacturers and other suppliers. A social programme is also being constructed to take advantage of the many delights Edinburgh has to offer. www.imsc-edinburgh2003.com, imscedinburgh@ btinternet.com.

Proteomics and prostate

A new mass spectrometry based proteomics technique to help distinguish between prostate cancer and benign conditions has been reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.¹ The level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) is commonly used as a preliminary screen for prostate cancer, but 70–75% of men who undergo biopsy because of an abnormal PSA level do not have cancer. The new test uses the results of the mass spectrometric analysis of serum proteins with an artificial intelligence program to train a computer to identify patterns of proteins that differed between patients with prostate cancer and those in which a biopsy had found no evidence of disease. The test was able to correctly identify 95% of cases of prostate cancer and 78% of benign cases.

The same research group have previously used a similar technique to detect ovarian cancer. www.cancer.gov.

Reference

1. E.F. Petricoin et al., “Serum proteomic patterns for detection of prostate cancer”, J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 94, 1576 (2002).

Metabonomics and heart disease

A spinout biotechnology company from Imperial College, London, UK, Metabometrix Limited, has a new type of test for atherosclerosis based on NMR spectroscopy. The latest “omics” is metabonomics, which involves the elucidation of changes in metabolite patterns associated with drug toxicity or disease processes based on the measurement of metabolites in biofluids and tissues from patients and various models of disease.

NMR at Metabometrix.

The new test offers advantages over other procedures as it can be carried out on standard preparations from blood. It needs no specialist preparations, is non-invasive, is much cheaper than alternatives and is safer than the angiographic procedure. Full clinical trials are currently under way at Papworth Hospital, Britain’s leading centre for cardiac medicine, and if the results are confirmed, the test could be available to hospitals within two years. www.metabometrix.com.

Fluorescence course

A course on Principles and Applications of Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy is being held in Europe for the first time. Previously the course, by Professor Lakowicz of the University of Maryland has only been held in the USA, but it will be held in October 2003 at the offices of PicoQuant in Berlin, Germany. www.picoquant.com.