Join us for our next Mass Spec Mixer - We will be hosting three Transition Talks from PhD students Kate Fell, Ksenia Kuznetsova, and Crystal Pace on June 17th at 11am EDT/4pm GMT. A lucky attendee will receive a free Simple Science Tees t-shirt! All are welcome, employers looking to hire postdocs and industry scientists are particularly encouraged to attend.

I have extensive (26 years) experience in advanced mass spectrometry and advanced biological/lipidomic/metabolomics/proteomic applications. As Director of the UF Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center (MSREC), I administer the day-to-day activities, analyze more complex data sets, supervise the complex mass spectrometry experiments, generate proposals for additional new instruments and upgrades, and interact with faculty to ensure that analytical needs are met in the most efficient way possible. I have a very broad experience in mass spectrometry (Orbitrap, QTOFs, Ion Traps, Triple quadrupoles, GC-MS, FT-ICR, ESI, MALDI, and various bioinformatics platforms). I also have a very broad expertise in applications including biological, environmental, polymer, lipidomic, glycomic and proteomic applications with over 90 publications to date. I completed my graduate work at Louisiana State University under the direction of Dr. Patrick A. Limbach (currently at the University of Cincinnati). I served as The Ohio State University Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility Director (OSU MS&P) for 15 years where I had considerable experience in identifying proteins and protein modifications, lipids, metabolites, and carbohydrates for quantitative analysis and identification of biomolecules. I have previously published under K.B. Green-Church and K.B. Green before transitioning to K.B.Basso.

I received my BS in Chemistry in 2013 working in gas phase kinetics with Dr. David Dolson at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Working with Dr. Nicolas Polfer at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, I earned my PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2019. I was part of the team developing the first mass selective cryogenic linear ion trap for performing ion spectroscopy. Additionally, my dissertation research focused on characterizing phosphopeptides using several mass spectrometric methodologies, including low energy collisional activation and laser induced activation schemes as well as ion spectroscopy. Upon completion of my graduate studies, I working collaboratively with Dr. Guo and Dr. Basso in the Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center as a post doctoral associate to develop their lipidomic analytical methods. I have developed and optimized LC-MS(MS) methodologies for untargeted lipidomic analysis, including developing a quantitative assay for improved unlabeled lipid quantitation and creating a methodology to characterize glycolipids using in vitro MSMS pattern matching. In 2021, I was hired as a Chemist to continue in the Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center under the direction of Dr. Kari Basso to continue working on lipidomic systems and to manage the Polymer Chemical Characterization Laboratory in collaboration with Dr. Brent Sumerlin.

I earned my PhD in Chemistry in 2015 at University of Florida under Dr. Richard Yost and Dr. Kevin Wang. My research focused on identifying protein biomarkers for traumatic brain injury (TBI). While working on my research, I had a great opportunity to be a teaching assistant in MSREC lab. This gave me an exposure to work on different types of mass spectrometers. After my defense, I was hired as a post doc in this facility under Dr. Kari Basso. During this time, I have worked on number of projects that includes label free proteomics, LC-MS/MS method development, lipidomics, small molecules, etc. In 2018, I was offered a Chemist position in MSREC lab. I currently look over majority of the projects that includes proteomics, targeted analysis, metabolites, lipids, etc. Being in the service lab, I also assist in training clients in sample prep, data analysis and also on using the instruments. I am also responsible for maintenance and troubleshooting of all the mass spectrometers in the lab.

I am a fifth year PhD student at the Department of Chemistry, University of Florida. I have received my Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Birla Institute of Technology, India. My current research is focused on discovering novel natural products produced by roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans using mass spectrometry and comparative metabolomics techniques.

Lab Showcase meetings are opportunities for lab PIs and Directors to share their scientific goals and ambitions, and introduce the labs' current projects and scientists to our community. This provides opportunities for
(1) identifying potential points of collaboration, and
(2) engaging with early career and underrepresented scientists.

MSREC – Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center is the Core Mass Spec lab at University of Florida. We have capabilities for proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, polymer analysis, accurate mass analysis, LC-MS etc. On top of being a traditional service facility, we integrate MS training to undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs. Students have the opportunity to not just drop off their sample but learn how to do sample preparation, learn how to run samples on the mass specs and how to analyze data. Our talk will describe the diverse range of research projects currently conducted in MSREC.

Questions regarding the science will be prioritized during Q&A, however, we hope to cover a few of these as well:

(1) What is your lab's super power? What does it excel at? Why?
(2) If you think about your lab, the work you do, the people you impact, what would "taking it to the next level" look like, and what would you need to make that happen?
(3) Can you tell us about any persistent challenges or pain points that you manage in your role, or from a more positive viewpoint, what are the greatest opportunities that you have identified in your lab?
(4) Can you describe a time when you stopped and thought to yourself, "I am successful."? In other words, can you identify a point when you decided that all the education, the PhD, the effort that you have put into science, was all totally and absolutely worth it?
(5) If you were to be invited to sit on a discussion panel, what topic would you be most passionate about or most interested in contributing to?
(6) Are there any lessons that you have learned from a mentor, colleague, or perhaps your own experience that you make a particular effort to pass on to those who enter your lab?

Dr. Xin Li is a research fellow at the Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University where he got his Ph.D. degree. He is going to start to work at Peking University Third Hospital as a urologist in August 2021. Dr. Li is also proud to win the Young Investigator Grant in MSACL EU 2019 and to have a podium presentation of his research there. Recently, he has become a member of the Japanese Society for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry (JSBMS). While studying at Kyoto University he became interested in the clinical application of MALDI-TOF/MS, especially when using it in the urinary lipid analysis. Dr. Li and his supervisors, especially Dr. Kenji Nakayama who is an Asia Outreach Committee of MSACL and also one of the JSBMS council members, developed a simple relative-quantitative MALDI-TOF/MS system for urinary lipidomics, and they are applying it in the screening of urinary biomarkers for genitourinary disorders. Now, they are aiming at promoting the "qShot MALDI” system as a simple application for the MALDI analysis.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) has been used for lipid analysis since the 2000s. However, the poor reproducibility and quantitative ability hinder its application in clinical biomarker screenings. To improve the clinical usage of MALDI-TOF/MS, especially for quantitative detection of the urinary phospholipids (PLs) and lysophospholipids (LPLs), we have adopted three main strategies including the selection of a proper matrix, a specially designed plate, and a spike of ionization standards. This system, named “qShot MALDI” analysis, offers a quick, qualitative, and quantitative detection of urinary PLs and LPLs. Meanwhile, a clinical application of this system was conducted for screening urine lipidomic biomarkers for prostate cancer. The results indicated that the qShot MALID system had a good performance with rapid, convenient, and reproducible properties.

Anne K Bendt studied Biology focusing on marine biotechnology (Greifswald University, Germany), followed by a PhD in Biochemistry (Cologne University, Germany) employing proteomics and transcriptomics. Driven by her fascination for infectious diseases, she joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2004 to develop lipidomics tools for tuberculosis studies. She is now a Principal Investigator at the Life Sciences Institute, NUS, focussing on translation of mass spec technologies into clinical applications, and serving as the Associate Director of the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING) taking care of operations and commercialization.

Are you thinking about the next step in your career? About an international career move? Publishing your exciting scientific findings in an Open Access journal? Don’t miss our next career development event with Dr. Anne Bendt where we will talk about her career path in academia and how that led to her current role in the National University of Singapore and SLING. We will also talk about a wide range of topics including interviews, the importance of networking and collaborations as well as publishing at the JMSACL!

Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley is the Head of Systems Medicine at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen and an Associate Professor at King’s College London.
Her main area of interest is neurometabolism and how the brain copes with disease, as well as finding clinical tests for healthy aging, Alzheimer's, cognition, diabetes and metabolic diseases. Her discoveries span fatty molecules that are important for cognition, small molecules that in liver alert to tissue damage, together with modulating molecular pathways for improving the treatment of diabetes. She is also researching algorithms for better personalised diagnoses in the clinic.
She has been a group leader at King's College London since 2006. In 2018 she moved to Steno a hospital and research center in Denmark to pursue her interests in Systems Medicine. She shares her findings in scientific publications in the biotechnology and medical fields

Scientist passionate to improve patient care via novel biomarkers & precision medicine

I had the pleasure to learn from the best in the field in metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics. My primary interest is translating these technologies into the clinical setting for improved, more personalized disease treatment.
My education is a combination of various experiences within technology, mass spectrometry and clinical applications:

MSE from the Technical University of Warsaw (Poland)
PhD from the Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
Postdoctoral research at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and University of Copenhagen (Denamrk)
Short-term visits at the University of Campinas (Brazil), University of Alberta (Canada), Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Germany)

His PhD project looks into individual metabolic response to diabetes treatments and investigate biomarkers that can be used to direct personalized treatment.

Dr Jin Xu is a Research Associate at King's College London. Her research focuses on the application of metabolomics and lipidomics to understand the underlying biology in Alzheimer's disease, together with the integration of multi-omics and clinical data to test early diagnostic panels.

Our research goal is to discover clinical tests for diagnostics and new disease treatments. We work on neuro and metabolic diseases and particulalrly in disease that affects the brain and the liver, like Alzheimer's Disease and Diabetes.

Our science is at the interface between chemistry and medicine and we are experts in biotechnology and the use of data science to allow the detection of thousands of small molecules / lipids in order to understand the underlying biology in disease.
We can get molecular data with mass spectrometry instruments and perform data analytics, including machine learning, to understand this biology. In order to translate results into the clinic we also work with clinical trials and evidence portfolios for EMA approval. This field of research can be called systems medicine, because it integrates -omic data and clinical data together to understand health.

Lab Showcase meetings are opportunities for lab PIs and Directors to share their scientific goals and ambitions, and introduce the labs' current projects and scientists to our community. This provides opportunities for
(1) identifying potential points of collaboration, and
(2) engaging with early career and underrepresented scientists.

Joseph Jones has worked in the clinical forensic toxicology field for over 30 years for large workplace drug testing laboratories and boutique forensic laboratories that specialize in testing alternative specimen types and is currently the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of United States Drug Testing Laboratories. He has contributed to over 25 peer-reviewed scientific papers in the field of forensic toxicology and facilitated numerous workshops and presentations. Jones has provided drug testing expert testimony on behalf of LabCorp and USDTL in a number of venues including union arbitration, unemployment hearings, family court child custody, child abuse/neglect and capital murder cases. Jones has been certified by the National Registry of Certified Chemists at a Toxicological Chemist.

Andre Sukta joined USDTL in early 2013 as our Laboratory Supervisor, bringing more than a decade of forensic toxicology expertise with him.
Andre received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry (Forensics concentration) in 2002 from Benedictine University, Lisle, IL. In 2009, he received his Masters of Science degree in Forensic Science from University of Illinois at Chicago. He has co-authored several peer-reviewed research articles, including papers in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology and Forensic Science International.
In 2002, Andre began his career in toxicology as a Forensic Scientist with the Illinois Racing Board Laboratory. Since then, he has worked with various toxicology groups, including University of Illinois at Chicago - College of Pharmacy, Indiana University - College of Medicine, and the Indiana State Department of Toxicology.
Andre Sukta is a member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT), where he serves as a director of the organization, and serves on the professional mentoring program committee. He is also a member of the National Safety Councils Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division, where he serves as the Cannabis and Health and Safety subcommittee chair. He is also a full member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), Chicago Chromatography Discussion Group (CCDG), and Midwest Association of Toxicology and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (MATT).

Prenatal exposure to ethanol has long been associated with several long-term negative health consequences for the newborn including physical, cognitive, social, and behavioral impairments. The prevalence of FASD in North America may be as high as 5% of the population which represents an enormous public health concern (Flannigan, Coons-Harding, Anderson, Wolfson, Campbell, Mela, & Pei, 2020). Early identification of those affected is critical to address the special needs of these children to improve their outcomes. Outside of maternal self-report, there are limited strategies to objectively identify PAE at or near the time of birth.

Current testing strategies to detect prenatal exposure to ethanol is limited in scope and utility Unfortunately, a rapid immunoassay test does not exist leaving us with a very expensive and time-consuming liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry screening method. The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate a newly developed and validated a method for the detection of ethyl glucuronide in umbilical cord tissue using Laser Diode Thermal Desorption-Tandem Mass Spectrometry. The Laser Diode Thermal Desorption (LDTD), allows for a significant decrease in time and expense when compared to the current methodology.

The method was developed and validated according to the guidelines of the Scientific Working Group on Forensic Toxicology. Briefly, Umbilical Cord Tissue was weighed out (0.5 g), deuterated internal standard is added and homogenized in 3 mL of deionized water. Following centrifugation, the supernatant was purified using a solid phase extraction technique. The final reconstituted extract (8 µL) was transferred to an AD LazWell Plate and dried in a recirculating oven at 35°C until dry. The plate was transferred to the LDTD and analyzed. We will discuss our validation results as well as our experience with the analysis of authentic specimens in our laboratory.

Professor Vera Ignjatovic is a medical researcher focused on improving outcomes for children. She leads the Haematology Research team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and is a pioneer in the field of paediatric thrombosis and haemostasis and specifically Developmental Haemostasis, the concept describing age-specific development of the haemostatic system. Her research highlights include: First to describe differences in fibrin clot structure in children compared to adults; and first to demonstrate age-specific differences in response to heparin. Vera is an international expert in plasma proteomics, an approach that she uses widely in her research.

In this session, we will discuss:

1. The role of networking for scientists,
2. What are the dos and donts of networking?,
3. Career paths and making the choice,
4. Leadership role and building collaborations,
5. Beyond science and community participation.

Grace is an LC-MS/MS Applications Development Specialist at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver BC. She is passionate about developing the most user friendly and streamlined LC-MS/MS assays as possible for routine use in the Special Chemistry Mass Spec Lab. She loves troubleshooting, especially when the cause of problem has been discovered and the issue solved!

Deborah French Ph.D., DABCC (CC, TC) is currently Assistant Director of Chemistry and Director of Mass Spectrometry at the University of California San Francisco Clinical Laboratories. Her work currently focuses on the development and validation of LC-MS/MS assays for small molecules, specifically therapeutic drug monitoring, steroid hormones and toxicology. Deborah received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. She subsequently completed a ComACC Clinical Chemistry postdoctoral fellowship under the direction of Dr Alan Wu at the University of California San Francisco and is now board certified in Clinical Chemistry and Toxicological Chemistry by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.

Lorin Bachmann joined the VCU Department of Pathology in 2007. She currently serves as Co-Director of Clinical Chemistry, Co-Director of Point-of-Care Testing, Director of the New Kent Emergency Department Laboratory, Technical Advisor for the Operating Room Laboratory, Pathology Outreach and Clinical Trials, and Laboratory Director for multiple VCUHS outreach laboratories. Dr. Bachmann received her PhD in Molecular Medicine from the University of Virginia, followed by a fellowship in clinical chemistry and proteomics research at the University of Virginia. Dr. Bachmann is certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.

Dr. Bachmann is active within the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), where she serves on the Board of Directors. She also serves as the Chair of the Chemistry and Toxicology Expert Panel for the Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute (CLSI).

Dr. Bachmann’s research interests include evaluation and validation of new clinical laboratory assays, clinical laboratory analyzer design, development of mass spectrometry-based assays for the clinical laboratory and standardization of laboratory testing. She serves as the Chair of the National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP)/International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (IFCC) Joint Lab Working Group, whose goal is to accomplish standardization of urine albumin methods to enable utility of clinical decision thresholds.

Dr. Bachmann has received numerous awards for her contributions to professional societies, education and research. She serves as principal investigator for multiple industry-sponsored studies.

This is a VIRTUAL 4-Day Course with 16 total contact hours. CE to be provided (16 hrs).



Online Format

This is a virtual version of the short course that has been presented at MSACL. This online course includes 2.5-5 hours of live lecture each day for four days. Using Zoom (live online lectures, breakout rooms for interactive sessions) and Google Classroom (forms and job aids for download, on demand short lecture videos) provides additional opportunities for interactive and self-paced learning, both during the four-day course and beyond.

The resources posted in Google Classroom will be available to registrants for at least 3 months. We can’t give you hands-on experience with cutting PEEK tubing or changing check valves in an online course. But the potential with a virtual platform for networking and updates with actionable information to help you with your daily LC-MS/MS clinical practice seems almost limitless.

Course Content Description

Is your laboratory under pressure to purchase an LC-tandem MS or is the ROI you wrote last year haunting you now? This short course is designed for attendees implementing quantitative LC-tandem MS for patient testing who have laboratory medicine experience but no mass spectrometry training - CLS bench analysts, supervisors, R&D scientists, and laboratory directors. Theoretical concepts necessary for a robust implementation of clinical mass spectrometry will be presented – but the emphasis is on practical recommendations for:

1. LC-MS/MS system purchasing
2. site preparation and installation
3. defining preliminary MSMS and LC parameters for your first method
4. selecting and optimizing sample preparation for your first method
5. choosing internal standards, solvents, and water, making reagents and calibrators
6. adjusting sample preparation, LC and MSMS parameters to achieve the desired assay performance
7. establishing data analysis & batch review criteria
8. pre-validation stress testing and method validation
9. preventative maintenance and troubleshooting
10. maintaining quality in production.

Our goal is to present just enough theory so you can report high quality results, while opening a window to the depth and complexity of clinical mass spectrometry such that your appetite is whetted to learn more. The IFCC Committee for Distance Learning published a curriculum guideline for post-graduate trainees in laboratory medicine in 2017. This course includes all of the IFCC mass spectrometry curriculum listed in the “Principles of Analysis X-MS” section, except that we focus only on triple quadrupole mass spectrometry; metabolomics, proteomics and inborn errors of metabolism are not discussed. See also this reference by one of the team of short course instructors “Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry education for clinical laboratory scientists”.

Previous exposure to the principles of clinical method validation, either didactic or practical, is assumed. A post-course online exam will be available, with a certificate of completion for those who take and pass the exam within the examination window of two weeks after the four day short course.

A native of Florida, Kelly completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Florida. After graduating with honors in 2009, Kelly joined the Department of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University as a graduate student. Her research in the lab of John A. McLean focused on the development of ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) methods for the identification of metabolite, lipid, and peptide biomolecular signatures of disease from complex biological samples. After receiving her Ph.D. in 2014, Dr. Hines completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Mayo Clinic Regional Metabolomics Core where she established quantitative MS methods for lipidomics and protein metabolism using isotope labeling. In 2015, Dr. Hines joined the lab of Libin Xu at the University of Washington. Her work in the Xu Lab focused on the development of IM-MS methods for lipidomics, high-throughput IM-MS measurements of drugs and small molecules, and the significance of lipids in human diseases, environmental exposure and antibiotic resistance. Kelly has authored research publications in top-tier analytical chemistry and molecular sciences journals such as Analytical Chemistry, Journal of Lipid Research, and Molecular Cell. Kelly has been the recipient of several noteworthy awards, including a U.S. Pharmacopoeia Fellowship, the ACS Dan Su Travel Award, and several Young Investigator travel awards. She is most proud of being selected as a Finalist for the University of Washington Graduate School Postdoc Mentoring Award during her time at UW. Outside the lab, Kelly is an avid reader of fiction, a college football enthusiast and enjoys being outdoors.

Our goal is to better understand the ways in which lipids and small molecules contribute to diseases affecting human health and use this knowledge to develop diagnostic and prognostic tools based on molecular signatures of the disease. To achieve this, the Hines Lab develops and applies bioanalytical methods using ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) to enhance the throughput and dimensionality of lipidomics and metabolomics experiments. One focus of the group is antibiotic resistance, where we are characterizing the metabolic alterations in antibiotic resistant pathogens and developing IM-MS methods for antibiotic susceptibility testing and small molecule screening.

Lucia Grenga is a researcher in the laboratory of Innovative Technologies for Detection and Diagnostics at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). She is interested in the development of tandem mass spectrometry‐based methodologies and their integration with other omics approaches for the characterization of clinically relevant microbiomes.

Proteomics offers a wide collection of methodologies to study biological systems at the finest granularity. Faced with COVID-19, the most worrying pandemic in a century, a collective mass spectrometry effort was launched to study COVID?19 and propose alternative solutions for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. Since then, proteomics researchers have made significant progress in understanding how its causative virus SARS-CoV-2 hijacks the host's cellular machinery and multiplies exponentially, how the disease can be diagnosed, and how it develops, as well as its severity predicted. Numerous cellular targets of potential interest for the development of new antiviral drugs have been documented. The main findings gathered by our group and other proteomists will be discussed while pointing out how they could represent game?changers in the COVID-19 battlefield and in deciphering the long?term consequences of the infection.

Steve graduated from Imperial College of Science and Technology (Imperial College London) with a joint honours degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry before completing a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Subsequently, he was an Elmore Medical Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry in Cambridge University.
His research team in University College Dublin (UCD; www.ucd.ie) is currently developing multiplexed protein biomarker measurements using multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry to support the translation of novel multiplexed blood protein biomarkers to clinical diagnostic tests. He founded the UCD spin out company, Atturos (www.Atturos.com) in late 2016 and was awarded UCD's Innovator of the Year in 2018. Atturos aims to develop and deliver advanced diagnostic tests to support better decision making for better patient outcomes.

In 2017 he was the lead organiser of the 16th Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) World Congress, which was held in Dublin and included a Gala Dinner at which former US Vice-President Joe Biden was guest speaker.

Steve is currently Professor of Proteomics and Senior Fellow, UCD Conway Institute and past President of HUPO (www.hupo.org)

The challenges of developing new protein biomarker tests and delivering them to use for patient benefit will be presented. In the context of a recently initiated EU IMI consortium, particular emphasis will be placed on analytical validation of new multiplexed protein biomarker assays and their use in multi-centre evaluation and validation studies to support the development of new tests in psoriatic disease. Patient engagement and use of patient centric sampling devices for effective test delivery will be introduced.

Boone M. Prentice received his B.S. degree in Chemistry with Honors and Distinction from Longwood University (Farmville, VA) in 2008 with minors in Biology and Mathematics. At Longwood, he conducted electroanalytical research focused on developing biosensors under the supervision of Professor Melissa C. Rhoten. He attended graduate school at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) under the mentorship of Professor Scott A. McLuckey and received a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2013. His Ph.D. research focused on ion trap mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation development as well as gas-phase ion/ion and ion/molecule reactions involving biopolymers. Boone then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Professor Richard Caprioli’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) where he studied matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI IMS) instrumentation and applications. Specifically, he worked on Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) and time-of-flight (TOF) MS systems and applied IMS to the study of diabetes, cancer, drug delivery, and infectious disease. Boone joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2018. His research focuses on developing next-generation bioanalytical mass spectrometry to better understand the molecular basis of health and disease.

Imaging mass spectrometry is a powerful technology that enables the visualization of biochemical processes directly in tissues by combining the molecular specificity of mass spectrometry with the spatial fidelity of microscopic imaging. Especially when studying lipids, there are many isobaric and isomeric molecules that complicate spectral analysis, with each isoform having a potentially unique cellular function. While traditional tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) approaches can distinguish amongst these compounds in select instances, this is often not the case. Our group is developing gas-phase reactions that afford the ability to provide improved molecular specificity without manipulating the sample. These gas-phase transformations are fast, efficient, and specific, making them ideally suited for implementation into imaging mass spectrometry workflows to enable novel structural identification and separation based on chemical reactivity. While traditional analytical analyses oftentimes simply use the mass spectrometer as a detector of molecular mass, we instead use the mass spectrometer as a reaction vessel to perform unique gas-phase transformations to provide unparalleled levels of chemical resolution.

Dr. Stefani Thomas earned her BA in Biological Sciences from Dartmouth College and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California. She pursued postdoctoral training in Dr. Robert Cotter’s Middle Atlantic Mass Spectrometry laboratory, conducted clinical proteomics research in the Center for Biomarker Discovery and Translation, and completed a Clinical Chemistry postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. She is currently an Assistant Professor, a faculty member of the Advanced Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (ARDL) and a member of the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. She is also the Associate Medical Director of the M Health Fairview West Bank Laboratory. Stefani's research laboratory applies discovery and targeted mass spectrometry-based proteomics methods to elucidate the biology of ovarian cancer and to identify proteome-level mechanisms of improved ovarian cancer treatment response.

Lab Showcase meetings are opportunities for lab PIs and Directors to share their scientific goals and ambitions, and introduce the labs' current projects and scientists to our community. This provides opportunities for
(1) identifying potential points of collaboration, and
(2) engaging with early career and underrepresented scientists.

I grew up in San Diego, CA and Arlington, VA. I attended Santa Clara University where I received a B.S. in chemistry. I joined the MD PhD program at UCSD in 2007 and completed a PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Anthropogeny. I continued at UCSD for residency training in internal medicine and completed a year as chief resident in 2019-2020. In June of 2020, I started my Endocrinology Fellowship. I plan to pursue a career in academic medicine that combines clinical endocrinology with outcomes research in Vitamin D metabolism.

Using the MrOS database and mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that 1,25(OH)2 Vitamin D, 24,25(OH)2 Vitamin D, and their associated metabolite ratios are associated with gut microbial diversity in older community dwelling men. Notably, 25(OH) Vitamin D levels did not show this association. We also demonstrate that firmicutes which frequently produce butyrate are associated with higher levels of activated Vitamin D. Overall, the project demonstrates that quantifying Vitamin D metabolites may provide more clinically relevant measures of Vitamin D metabolism.

Vitamin D metabolites and the gut microbiome in older men

Amanda Hummon earned her A.B. in chemistry at Cornell University in 1999 with honors. She completed her graduate studies in analytical chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in the laboratory of Prof. Jonathan V. Sweedler. Her thesis work focused on the development of mass spectrometric and bioinformatic strategies to predict and identify neuropeptides. She received her Ph.D. in 2004. Amanda participated in the annotation of the newly sequenced honey bee genome as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Prof. Gene E. Robinson and Prof. Sandra L. Rodriguez-Zas at the University of Illinois from 2004-2005. The focus of her research was constructing a methodology to utilize detected gene products to decipher an unannotated genome.

From 2005-2009, Amanda was a Sallie Rosen Kaplen Post-Doctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Ried. During her time in the Ried lab, she utilized RNA interference screening techniques followed by microarray analysis to elucidate genes that regulate the viability of colorectal cancer cells.

In 2009, she began her independent career as the Walther Cancer Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame and was promoted to the Charles L. Huisking Associate Professor in 2015. She has been recognized with a NSF CAREER award (2014), a Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh Starter Grant Award (2011), and a Rising Star Award from the American Chemical Society (2016). Amanda moved her research program to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University in January 2018 and was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2019. In 2020, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award and will spend a semester as a Visiting Professor at the Maastricht MultiModal Molecular Imaging Institute at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.