ASMS 2023: A Look at Monday’s Evening Workshops

From 5:45 to 7:00 pm Monday evening, there was 17 technical workshops taking place at ASMS 2023. We provide a summary at each technical workshop below, noting the location and offering a brief overview of what was covered in the session.

The first technical session was titled, “The Role of Mass Spectrometry in Emerging Energy Technologies Development.” Yuri Corilo and Leonard Nyadong presided over the session, which took place in Room 310 A. This workshop provided attendees the opportunity to discuss the role of MS in the development of alternative energy technologies.

The second technical session was titled, “Nucleic Acids Mass Spectrometry: Emerging Applications, Effective Analytical Strategies, and Characterization for Progressively Larger Nucleic Acids.” Varun Gadkari, Jennifer Lippens, and Robert Ross presided over the session, which took place in Room 310 BC. This interest group seeked to bring together ASMS members to discuss the latest in nucleic acid MS, with a focus on sample production and preparation, method development, analysis strategies, and application needs.

The third technical session was titled, “Mass Spectrometry for Drug Product Quality: Research and Collaboration Opportunities.” Jinhui Zhang and Mack Shih presided over the session, which took place in Room 320A. This workshop provided MS researchers in academia a broader picture of the importance of MS in drug evaluation and research.

The fourth technical session was titled, “Global Participatory Efforts to Characterize the Biochemical Composition of Food: The Periodic Table of Food Initiative and The Proteomes that Feed the World.” Jessica Prenni and Bernhard Kuster will preside over the session, which will take place in Room 320 BC. This workshop will present two global efforts focused on improving our understanding of what is in our food.

The fifth technical session was titled, “Single-Cell Proteomic Standardization: From Study Design to Data Analysis.” Jennifer Van Eyk and Peter Nemes presided over the session, which took place in Ballroom A. This workshop focused on challenges and solutions in single-cell proteomics.

The sixth technical session was titled, “Nertworking for Scientists: Celebrating Women Mass Spectrometrists.” Stacy Malaker, Aivett Bilbao, and Julie Courraud presided over the session, which took place in Ballroom B. This workshop focused on the career paths in mass spectrometry, with a focus on giving advice to women when pursuing a career in this field.

The seventh technical session is titled, “Exploring the World of Mass Spectral Libraries, Library Search Software, and Their Applications.” Emma Rennie, Xiaoyu Yang, and Melinda McFarland will preside over the session, which will take place in Ballroom C. This workshop will present on the current state of MS libraries and the software tools that have been developed or utilized.

The eighth technical session was titled, “Ion Traps as Reaction Vessels.” Dalton Snyder and Lucas Szalwinski presided over the session, which took place in Room 332. This workshop focused on the ion trap's ability to serve as a vessel for conducting ion/ion, ion/molecule, ion/photon, and fragmentation reactions.

The ninth technical session was titled, “Career Opportunities for Chinese Students and Scholars.” Junmin Peng and Shuguang Ma presided over the session, which took place in General Assembly A. This workshop aimed to provide career perspectives to students and scholars to learn the career paths at different career stages.

The tenth technical session was titled, “Making Top-Down Mass Spectrometry Easier to Develop and Apply: Ways to Work Together and How Everyone Can Contribute.” Yuri van der Burgt and Mowei Zhou presided over the session, which took place in General Assembly B. This workshop talked about the Consortium for Top-down Proteomics (CTDP) and present the organization’s mission and aims.

The eleventh technical session was titled, “New Aspects in the Development and Implementation of Multi-Attribute Method (MAM).” Da Ren and Andrew Mahan presided over the session, which took place in General Assembly C. This workshop allowed members to share and discuss those new aspects in the development and implementation of MAM.

The twelfth technical session was titled, “Data quality in the core lab: Preventing, catching, reporting and sometimes even fixing! suboptimal 'bad data' in an omics core facility aka the 'Bad data Workshop.” Brett Phinney, Uri Keshet, and Dave Quilici presided over the session, which took place in Room 340 AB. This workshop provided tips and strategies for preventing and, if necessary, dealing with bad data in both proteomics and metabolomics core facilities.

The thirteenth technical session is titled, “Emerging Techniques for Rapid Fabrication in MS Laboratories.” John F. Cahill and Vilmos Kertesz will preside over the session, which will take place in Room 351 ABDE. This workshop will allow for MS researchers to share their knowledge and expertise related to the use of these auxiliary technologies, with the goal of advancing research in the MS field.

The fourteenth technical session is titled, “Cannabis & Hemp Science: The Importance of Mass Spectrometry.” Jordan Witkop will preside over the session, which will take place in Room 351 CF. This workshop will discuss the applications of mass spectrometry to cannabis and hemp science and research.

The fifteenth technical session was titled, “Mind the (Translation) Gap.” Brian Rappold will preside over the session, which will take place in Room 360 ABDE. This workshop will discuss the framework of translating an innovation into reality with a panel of experts in diagnostic medicine, including representatives from manufacturers of FDA-approved materials and assays, venture capital/biotech investment and international reference laboratories.

The sixteenth technical session is titled, “Exposome Research: Overcoming Challenges to Deliver Answers.” Benedikt Warth, Ruth Marfil-Vega, and Silvia Balbo presided over the session, which took place in Room 360 CF. This workshop informed and discussed the latest developments in the expanding field of exposome research.

The seventeenth technical session was titled, “Using Casanovo for de novo Peptide Sequencing.” Melih Yilmaz, William Noble, and Will Fondrie presided over the session, which took place in Room 361 ABDE. This workshop introduced attendees to the new peptide sequencing method and trained them to install the software, run Casanovo using a pre-trained trypsin or non-enzymatic model, and interpret and visualize the results.