A chemist by training, Renee is now the Chief Growth Officer for SciBase, which is the Yelp of scientific literature. She trained as a founder in programs such as YC Startup School and Founder Gym, completed a dual MBA program at Cornell University and Queen's University, and studied venture capitalism at The Wharton School. She has experience in industry as Senior Scientist and Senior Manager of Business Strategy and Operations at Janssen BioPharma.

Ken Hallenbeck earned a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of California, San Francisco, and now is an early drug-discovery researcher. He loves to think and write about the future of scientific research. He serves on the board of directors of ReImagine Science, a nonprofit that empowers and connects scientist advocates, and is the life sciences lead at TerraPrime, a consulting firm that works with start-ups that aim to disrupt the scientific publication and education ecosystems.

It has happened to all of us: a paper comes out describing results related to your lab work. You scroll down to the methods to see what they did - a few days or weeks later, you try to replicate the result in your own lab. It doesn’t work.

What happens next? If you are a computational biologist, you might pop over to Stack Overflow or search the internet for common errors. But this is lab research, and there are a million things to test: Are the reagents old? What kind of instrument did the authors use and how does it compare? Were there nuances in the preparation steps that weren't recorded in the Methods?

Unfortunately, post-publication dialogue about lab research is difficult. Reports of irreproducible experiments can be taken as personal attacks on the author, or shots at the quality of the editors of the publishing journal. Most likely, the differences are perfectly logical details that were lost in translation from lab to manuscript and back to lab. How can the scientific community work together to translate those details more effectively? The internet has rewritten the rules of print publishing over the last 3 decades - why hasn’t it had the same impact on post-publication discussion?

There are four main challenges to post-publication peer review:

1. Incentives. Scientists want issues of reproducibility and post-publication dialogue to be addressed, but a lack of incentive inhibits many from engaging. They rightfully ask: "Will this help me get a postdoc position? How about a job? Will this increase my standing in the scientific community?" Any platform that seeks to be effective must align both self-interested and nobler motives.

2. Political realities. Science may position itself as an objective pursuit of truth, but research scientists know that's not always the way it works. How likely is a graduate student to publicly criticize her professor's work, even when her point is valid? A failure to recognize the prominent role that these dynamics play in human behavior will limit any solution’s effectiveness.

3. Balancing new & old. While the proliferation of open-access journals represent a tremendous step in the right direction, the vast majority of scientific knowledge still resides in traditional channels, or is left entirely unpublished. An ideal solution would allow the publishing of new work while building on the existing base of knowledge.

4. Critical mass. If you were the second person ever to visit Yelp and you saw one review of one restaurant on the other side of the country, how likely would you be to visit the site again (let alone contribute your own review)? Any new platform must reach a critical mass of users, readers, and content before it can achieve its goals.

There are several existing platforms for constructive post-publication conversations. Some succeed addressing a few of these challenges, but none have been widely adopted. If the research sciences want to truly address the reproducibility problem, we need to allow and incentivize post-publication review and dialogue. At the same time, discussion platforms need to protect users who may be opening themselves up to professional retaliation. Lastly, we believe any post-publication platform needs to be fast, easy to use, and accessible. While this might require an expansion of what is considered peer review, such an expansion is long overdue. Scientists have brief halfway conversations about their experiments daily - why couldn’t such conversations happen online, hosted somewhere that places these snippets of scientific discourse into a broader context?

At SciBase, we have built a platform to address all of these concerns directly. SciBase hosts crowdsourced reviews of chemistry and life sciences papers, letting the reviewer decide the level of detail they have the time, freedom, or desire to share. A categorized 5-star review system captures the basic message while allowing reviewers - if they so choose - to provide comprehensive justification for their scoring. Optional anonymity gives a microphone to voices that might otherwise be quashed, but moderators ensure that content is constructive and scientific, and data science approaches can be used to detect bad actors. Users can score each other’s reviews to help provide community moderation.

And what are the incentives? Foremost, the chance to promote your research and engage enthusiasts and critics in a structured fashion, all while directly addressing the reproducibility problem. SciBase has built a way for authors to provide additional insight into their own work. As authors, we know that the final version of a paper often excludes information we wish we could communicate to the broader field. Whether they are tips and tricks, or experiments we attempted that didn’t work, SciBase is a place to share those valuable details. SciBase also partners with companies looking for scientific talent to identify users that have written high-quality reviews. This recruitment strategy is orthogonal to the traditional use of publications as career currency. On SciBase, your review content is your CV. This levels the playing field and allows companies to identify candidates based on their engagement, rather than their success in the game of chance that traditional publishing can be.

SciBase is an experiment. The hypothesis? If we create a platform that facilitates and incentivizes scientific communication, we could succeed in creating a systemic change in the way science is conducted. As with any experiment, SciBase could fail. Post-publication review is a tricky problem that (we don't believe) anyone has gotten right yet, and - though we believe someone will get it right soon - it may not be SciBase. The only way to know is to try. Next time you publish or read a paper, considering looking it up on SciBase.co to begin the post-publication conversation. See you there!

Dr. Garrett has over 20 years of experience in the field of mass spectrometry spanning both instrument and application development. He received his PhD from the University of Florida, under Dr. Richard A. Yost, working on the first imaging mass spectrometry-based ion trap instrument. He has also developed MALDI-based approaches to analyze proteins in bacteria and small molecules in tissue specimens. His current interests include the translation of LC-HRMS, MALDI, DESI and LMJSSP in metabolomics to clinical diagnostics. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Florida, and an Associate Director for the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics (SECIM).

Donald H. Chace, PhD, MSFS, FAACC is the Chief Scientific Officer for Medolac, a public benefit corporation. He is one of the primary developers of newborn metabolic screening using tandem Mass Spectrometry. Developed 25 years ago with the first screening publication in Clinical Chemistry that describes the MS-based newborn screening of PKU, the method is now used to screen millions of infants per year, worldwide. Dr. Chace is an expert in metabolism and clinical chemistry using mass spectrometry as well as microsample analysis, e.g. the dried blood spot. He has published 100 peer reviewed articles and has presented at numerous conferences that focus on areas in Neonatology, Clinical Chemistry, Newborn Screening, Mass Spectrometry and Forensic Science. As CSO, at Medolac, he is currently working on bridging the gap of human based nutrition in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit so that it will help neonatologist use human breast milk more efficiently. Dr. Chace is a guest researcher in the newborn screening and molecular biology division at the CDC and recently joined mQACC.

This is a 4-day Online (Zoom) course.

Metabolomics describes the analysis of the small molecules present in our body and ingested from the surrounding environment (i.e. drugs, pesticides, etc.). The analysis of these metabolites has recently been utilized to discover new markers of disease and perturbed metabolic pathways. Metabolomic analyses can be performed with either targeted or untargeted measurements. In targeted studies, only a small subset of metabolites is analyzed and this prevalent in clinical analyses for measurements such as those for newborn screening. Untargeted measurements, however, study all possible small molecules in a single injection and heavily rely on the use of high resolution mass spectrometry to precisely measure the m/z values across many samples. Untargeted measurements are almost always coupled to either gas or liquid chromatography or ion mobility as the retention time or mobility provides an important secondary distinguishing characteristic of each specific metabolite. It is expected that both targeted and untargeted metabolomic measurements will have an important place in future clinical studies.

Given the growth of metabolomics over the past several years, the use of high resolution mass spectrometry has rapidly progressed. High resolution approaches to measure small molecules offer several advantages for clinical analyses such as confirmation via accurate mass of the precursor and product ions and an evaluation of the isotopic abundance. This short course will cover the application of high resolution mass spectrometry to both quantitative and semi-quantitative analyses with a focus on metabolomics.

Topics in this short course include: mass accuracy for identification, tandem mass spectrometry, quantitative aspects of high resolution mass spectrometry, identifying and measuring the metabolome, statistical analysis, ion mobility spectrometry, and liquid and gas chromatography coupled to high resolution MS.

Ruth Andrew holds a Chair in Pharmaceutical Endocrinology at the University of Edinburgh and directs the Clinical Research Facility Mass Spectrometry Core. After qualifying as a pharmacist in 1990, she studied for a PhD in the field of pharmaceutical analysis, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry as an approach to profile catecholamines in hypertension. In 1994, she joined the Endocrinology Unit in the University of Edinburgh to develop further interests in mass spectrometry and establish its use in steroid profiling in cardiovascular disease. Since then Ruth has investigated the regulation of glucocorticoid metabolism and her group has focussed on the role of hepatic 5α-reductase in diabetes and in dynamic methods to quantify these metabolic pathways in vivo using stable isotope tracers. She leads a team specialising in small molecule quantitative analysis in support of translational medicine. She takes an active role in teaching both Honours students (Endocrine Physiology and Pharmacology, Clinical Biochemistry) and post- graduate students. She is a Committee member of the Society for Endocrinology, the Chief Scientist Office, FWO (Flanders), and the Commonwealth Commission and an Editor for the British Journal of Pharmacology, a Specialty Chief Editor for Systems Endocrinology (Frontiers in Endocrinology) and an Associate Editor with Talanta.

Join our next event organized by the MSACL Early Career Network (Europe team) discussing the role and applications of MS in the study of metabolic and endocrine disorders. Prof. Ruth Andrew will talk about her research regarding the role of 5 alpha-reductase in diabetes and modulating fuel homeostasis as well as the applications of MS in the study of the steroidome. We will have a fireside chat about her research and her lessons and advice on a career in clinical MS. This is not only a great opportunity for everyone working in the study of metabolic and endocrine disorders to discuss and learn from one the worldwide leads in this field, but also for all early career scientists following a career in academia.

Pieter Dorrestein uses mass spectrometry to eavesdrop on the molecular conversations between microbes and their world. To produce the image, researchers swabbed every surface in the room, including the people, several hundred times, then analysed the swabs with mass spectrometry to identify the chemicals present.

Kiana is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Dorrestein Lab at UCSD. She is applying a reference data-driven approach to generate food readouts from metabolomics data acquired from clinical biospecimens. These readouts, proxies for diet consumption, are used to investigate interactions between diet, disease, and the gut microbiome. Her primary clinical focus is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), but she is also involved in other projects such as Alzheimer’s disease. Kiana received a PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from Imperial College London where she studied metabolomics and microbiomics. Her research at Imperial focused on uncovering metabolic/bacterial signatures associated with altered human development, such as adverse pregnancy outcomes and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Untargeted metabolomics experiments suffer from large proportions of unannotated molecules. Using a reference data-driven approach, we increase the spectral annotation rate by assigning potential sources to molecular features. We have applied this approach using a food reference database to generate diet readouts from clinical samples. Surveying the food-associated compounds detected in clinical samples, we can differentiate patients with specific diet types, such as predominantly animal protein- versus plant-based diet. In addition, we can identify specific foods associated with clinical outcomes in disease cohorts. With its broad applications, we envision this approach becoming invaluable in nutrition research as well as many other fields once additional reference datasets become available.

Shane Ellis completed his Undergraduate studies (B.Nanotechnology) and PhD in the field of ambient ionisation mass spectrometry and lipidomics the University of Wollongong, Australia. In 2012 he began a post-doctoral positional at the FOM-Institute AMOLF where he worked on the development of innovative active-pixel detectors for charged particle detection with applications in imaging mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry. From 2014-2019 he was an Assistant Professor within the M4I Institute (Maastricht University, The Netherlands) where he led the Instrumentation and Application Development Group. His research develops and applies state-of-the-art mass spectrometry imaging methods to reveal localised biochemical processes within complex tissues and how they altered with disease. His group has developed a variety of innovative methods that significantly enhance the sensitivity and spatial resolution of MSI experiments and enabled precise and comprehensive structural identification of the many molecules detected by MSI. This research was supported by numerous Dutch and European grants. In 2020 he returned to Australia as an ARC Future Fellow and started a new mass spectrometry imaging group within the new Molecular Horizons Institute where he continues to further develop and apply mass spectrometry imaging technologies and apply them to challenging biological and chemical problems.

Dr Shane Ellis's group develops and applies mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) technologies to study the distributions of various molecular species throughout tissues and cells. His research covers both the development of new instrumentation to improve the performance of MSI (e.g., sensitivity, spatial resolution and molecular coverage) as well as the application of MSI to studying altered molecular processes occurring in diseased tissues and the spatially-resolved classification of such tissues. A particular focus is in the field of lipidomics, where he applies state-of-the-art MSI technologies to visualize and understand altered lipid biochemistry occurring in diseased tissues and cells.

Dr. Xin Yan received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University in 2015 under the supervision of Professor R. Graham Cooks. After graduation, she did her postdoctoral research with Professor Richard N. Zare at Stanford University.
Dr. Xin Yan joined the chemistry department, Texas A&M University as an assistant professor in the summer of 2018. Her research centers around the development and application of droplet chemistry in lipid/metabolite analysis, reaction acceleration, and new synthetic methods.

Lipids play a vital role in maintaining cellular functions. Altered lipid metabolism is currently considered a hallmark of many diseases, which highlights the importance of the characterization of lipid composition in understanding, diagnosing, and treating pathologies. Discrimination of isomeric species is challenging in lipidomics. In this talk, I will introduce the microdroplet electrochemical methods capable of resolving different types of isomers commonly encountered in lipid samples using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The methods take advantage of the voltage-controlled and dramatically accelerated electrochemical derivatization of lipid isomers in microdroplets to achieve structural elucidation. Applications of the electrochemical mass spectrometry methods in real sample analysis will also be included.

Dr. Benjamin Owusu is the Technical Director, Clinical Chemistry at Laboratory Corporation of America (Labcorp), Burlington, NC. He did his postdoctoral clinical fellowship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Owusu earned his PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry (first class honors) at the University of Ghana, where he also served as a Teaching Assistant. He later moved to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA on a visiting research scholarship prior to starting his doctoral training at UAB. Dr. Owusu is a recipient of multiple academic/research awards and honors. His research over the years span across cancer, cardiovascular, hematological, and endocrinological diseases. In addition to clinical service in diagnostics and research, Dr. Owusu is also passionate about teaching and mentoring, particularly in STEM education.

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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.

Research Assistant Prof. Cazenave-Gassiot is an early-career researcher and an expert in mass spectrometry-based lipidomics. He graduated with a PhD in analytical chemistry at the University of Southampton (UK), under the supervision of Dr John Langley, specialising in supercritical fluid chromatography and mass spectrometry. His interest in lipids started while a postdoc in the team of Professor Anthony Postle, still in Southampton. A member of SLING since 2009, his research centres on separation sciences, mass spectrometry, and their applications to life sciences, especially lipid biochemistry. He has developed chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods for the identification and quantification of lipids in diverse biological systems. This has included successful local and international collaborations.

Prof. Michael Chen is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. He completed his M.D., C.M. undergraduate medical program from McGill University in 2011. His journey at UBC began with the appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Sciences in 2017. Since 2019 he has been a Medical Director at Victoria Lipid Clinic. Most recently, he is contributing to the UBC COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative as Co-Chair of the biobank. His research interests are Clinical and Translational Proteomics, Biomarker validation and Clinical Biobanking.

This 8-hr course is meant to (1) create awareness for the importance and therefore potential value of lipid testing beyond cholesterol and triglycerides for future clinical applications. We will (2) then outline currently available technologies and their respective opportunities and challenges, and (3) discuss candidate molecules in the context of two case studies. (4) Finally, this short course is designed to be engaging thus will require some active participation via online live-feedback.

1) Looking beyond cholesterol and TAG:
- Gain an understanding of the universe of lipids, how they are intricately linked to biology and their implications in health and diseases
- Potential of blood based lipid testing
- Identify physiologically relevant candidate lipids for adoption by the clinical community, for future studies towards establishing clinical utility

2) Current lipidomics R&D workflows:
- Path of translation from R&D laboratory-style methods towards robust and quantitative assays with appropriate turnaround times
- Pre-analytics (sampling requirements, plasma vs serum, storage, etc.)
- Analytics (i.e. batches, internal standards, lipid extractions, direct infusion vs LC-MS and LC-MS/MS, quality assurance)
- Post-analytics (raw data processing, lipid annotations, quality control, quantification), - Ongoing harmonization efforts

3) Case studies of markers that have advanced to clinical settings:
- Examples of markers that have already been implemented in a clinical setting in larger scale studies, to illustrate the feasibility and technical tractability, the clinical impact of lipid testing and its value on overall healthcare

4) Outreach and Engagement between the analytical scientist specialized in mass spectrometry of lipids, the clinician researcher and laboratory medicine as the end user are key to the development of impactful / useful lipidomics in clinical applications.

Cam has recently discovered mass spectrometry imaging and found a home with data analysis. He hopes to continue MSI development and exploration through the completion of his undergraduate degree and pursue analytical chemistry in graduate school. Cam enjoys time in the outdoors when not camping out behind a computer screen.

Mass spectrometry imaging returns large dimensionally complex datasets. Traditional analysis in imaging utilizes a mindset focused on target molecule identification that parses data with a narrow view of molecular exploration. These data analysis methods are specifically focused on exploring differences between a traditional organic acid matrix when compared to using nanoparticles for MSI, which results in very different ionization of small molecules. Analysis methods have taken a shotgun approach using both supervised and unsupervised machine learning to reveal critical trends in MSI datasets. A workflow is being prepared which enables select regions of interest to be compared using powerful machine learning algorithms to offer a holistic approach to data analysis and class comparison.

Kate's primary job is as an educator at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI). In her spare time, she works with students on mass spectrometry imaging projects.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful analytical method for the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of compounds within a biological sample. Despite the broad applicability of this technique, there is a critical need for advancements in methods for small molecule detection. Some molecular classes of small molecules are more difficult than others to ionize, e.g., neurotransmitters (NTs). The chemical structure of NTs (i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary amines) affects ionization and has been a noted difficulty in the literature. In order to achieve detection of NTs using MSI, strategies must focus on either changing the chemistry of target molecules to aid in detection or focus on new methods of ionization. This presentation will introduce a new method of ionization, using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and the bigger picture of NPs for MSI.

Newomics’ new Microflow-nanospray Electrospray Ionization (MnESI) Source offers unmatched sensitivity, robustness, and reproducibility for small-volume, high-throughput analysis of antibodies, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids derived from cells and human plasma. Researchers can use the platform for the timely identification of thousands of molecules in a multitude of tiny biological samples, while also taking advantage of the system’s superior nanoflow sensitivity and low detection limits. Ultimately, the MnESI Source enables significantly improved mass spectrometry performance. In this seminar, we will showcase the performance of MnESI platform in bottom-up proteomics, targeted proteomics, and top-down proteomics for clinical applications.

Laura Owen is a Consultant Clinical Scientist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and honorary senior lecturer at the University of Manchester where she teaches chromatography and mass spectrometry at Master’s level. Laura is also proud to be the chair of the practical training committee of MSACL EU and a past member of the endocrinology committee. While working at Wythenshawe hospital and in collaboration with the Christie hospital she became interested in the limitations of immunoassay measurement especially when using it in the breast cancer population. Laura developed and implemented the UK’s first LC-MS/MS assay for oestradiol in an NHS UKAS accredited laboratory which was made available for patient care and clinical trials.

Mike Wright is the Scientific Director at the Drug Development Solutions division of LGC, in Fordham, Cambridgeshire, UK. His team work on the development of assays for the monitoring of drugs and biomarkers, as drug development tools, in a wide variety of matrices. Prior to working at LGC, Mike worked in clinical diagnostics developing LC-MS/MS services for health trusts in the UK and Australia. Mike teaches on LC-MS/MS applications, considerations and troubleshooting and has contributed to a number of online training programs including the AACC’s Introductory Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry certificate.

Coral is an experienced LC-MS/MS Technical Specialist at the Drug Development Solutions division of LGC, in Fordham, Cambridgeshire, UK. She is responsible for the development and validation of assays for the quantitative measurement of exogenous small molecules, biomarkers and small peptides in various human matrices. Prior to working at LGC, Coral worked with LC-MS/MS applications in food safety at the Irish Marine Institute. Coral provides training on method development best practices and teaches the chemistry basics that are fundamental to developing a robust LC-MS/MS assay.

Is your laboratory under pressure to purchase an LC-tandem MS or have the instruments arrived and your team are beginning on their mass spectrometry journey? 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 - clinical bench analysts, supervisors, R&D scientists, and laboratory directors.

After starting out with a basic chemistry refresher, theoretical concepts necessary for a robust implementation of clinical mass spectrometry will be presented, however, the main focus of the course will be on practical recommendations for:

• Starting with MSMS, LC and sample extraction parameters
  
• Choosing internal standards, solvents, and water, making reagents and calibrators
  
• How to fine tune sample preparation, LC and MSMS parameters to achieve the desired assay performance
  
• Pre-validation stress testing and method validation
  
• Preventative maintenance and troubleshooting
  
• Maintaining quality once your new LC-MS/MS assay has gone live
  

• LC-MS/MS system purchasing
  
• site preparation and installation (dos and don’ts)
  
• establishing data analysis & review criteria and an interface to the LIS
  

The course will be a steady mixture of lectures, tutorials and problem solving sessions with our goal being 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.

Previous exposure to the principles of clinical method validation, either theoretical or practical, is assumed.

Mr. Huidong Gu is a Principal Scientist in the Clinical Biomarker Immunoassays and Mass Spec Department at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. For the past 17 years, Huidong has been working in the area of LC-MS/MS bioanalysis of small molecules, biologics and biomarkers with over 30 peer-reviewed publications. Huidong developed a novel approach for calculating and mitigating isotopic interferences in LC-MS/MS quantitative analysis. This approach has a significant impact in the area of microdosing absolute bioavailability studies using LC-MS/MS analysis of both the oral dosed non-labeled drug and the IV microdosed stable labeled drug. His recent work of in-sample calibration curve (ISCC) with multiple isotopologue reaction monitoring (MIRM) technique allows the instant and accurate measurement of biomarkers, biotherapeutics and small-molecule drugs in biological samples without using external calibration curves. This methodology can bring unique values of eliminated external calibration curves, simplified the workflows and improved throughput in the areas where absolute quantitation and overall sample turnaround still remain great challenges.

Anthony Newman, who is making the presentation today, is a Senior Publisher with Elsevier, and is based in Amsterdam. Currently responsible for sixteen laboratory medicine and biochemistry journals, he joined Elsevier over 30 years ago and has been Publisher for the last 20+ years. Before then he was the marketing communications manager for the biochemistry journals of Elsevier. By training he is a polymer chemist and was active in industry before leaving London and moving to Amsterdam in 1987 to join Elsevier.

Conducting the research is not enough – you must also publish it - or else, in effect, it never happened!
The art of writing scientific papers is not usually taught, and so has to be learned, without much readily available resources. This workshop remedies that. The various tips and tricks shared in the workshop will be helpful to novice post-doc authors, all the way up to experienced researchers.

Knowing the best way of structuring your paper when writing it and the most appropriate journal to send it to
really helps in getting your paper accepted. Apart from these areas, the workshop will also focus on method description to aid reproducibility, figure design, references, publication ethics, understanding the peer review process including appropriate response to referees comments, and concluding with a Q&A session with help from the JMSACL Editor-in-Chief Alan Rockwood.

Understanding how editors and publishers think and what they expect, and knowing how the peer review process works, is an invaluable insight into the publishing process. This should help you get your papers published more easily so that you are one of the 30% accepted authors, not one of the 70% rejected ones.

Paul J. Jannetto, Ph.D., DABCC, FAACC, M.T.(ASCP), is an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and a Consultant at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), where he serves as the Co-Director for the Clinical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Clinical and Forensic Toxicology Laboratory and the Metals Laboratory. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI) where he functioned as the Director of Clinical Chemistry/Toxicology at Dynacare Laboratories (Milwaukee, WI). He earned his BS in Clinical Laboratory Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and worked five years as a Medical Technologist for Medical Science Laboratories before entering graduate school. He then earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is board-certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and American Society for Clinical Pathology. His clinical and scientific interests are centered on Clinical & Forensic Toxicology, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, and Elemental Analysis.

Dr. Jannetto has been actively involved in the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) where he has participated in the TDM/Toxicology, Mass Spectrometry and Separation Sciences, Molecular Pathology, Management Sciences and Patient Safety, Personalized Medicine, and Critical and POCT divisions. In the past, he has served on numerous positions at the local level in both the Chicago and Midwest sections (e.g. Chair of the Chicago Section, Secretary of the Chicago Section, and Treasurer of the Midwest Section of AACC), and at the national level as a member of the Governance Review Advisory Taskforce, NACB Board of Directors, AACC Board of Directors, and Chair of the House of Delegates. Dr. Jannetto is also a member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology, and was the President of the Midwest Association for Toxicology and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, 14 book chapters, and over 75 abstracts/presentations at various national meetings.

An overview of the fundamentals that are driving research and development in the field of Toxicology.
This is part of a series of Primers on topics relevant to Clinical Mass Spectrometry.

Learning objectives include:
1. Be able to define what Toxicology is, why it matters, and why you personally should care. What is the clinical relevance?
2. Understand what role mass spectrometry plays in this field. Where does mass spec fit in to the big picture of the field?
3. Define any terminology that is specific to this field.
4. Describe how it works, what are the methods and workflows used when studying this field and/or how is it implemented in clinical labs.
5. Identify any challenges to implementation/adoption, where do the opportunities lie?

Professor Jack Henion is Emeritus Professor of Toxicology at Cornell University where he was a member of the College of Veterinary Medicine commencing in 1976. Dr. Henion was co-founder of Advion BioSciences in 1993 where he served as President and CEO until 2006 when be became CSO of Advion, Inc. Dr. Henion carried out a wide range of research in many application areas involving GC/MS and LC/MS/MS techniques. Professor Henion has received three Doctor Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate) degrees in recognition of his international reputation in modern analytical techniques. These were awarded from each of the University of Ghent, Uppsala University and Albany University. During his tenure at Cornell Professor Henion conducted research and explored applications in many areas of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) employing atmospheric pressure ionization (API) sources. Professor Henion has published over 235 peer reviewed papers in the scientific literature, trained nearly 100 students, post-doctoral scientists, and trainees while receiving 12 patents for inventions developed from his work. He has also received a number of awards which recognize his contributions to analytical chemistry and entrepreneurship. More recently in April 2017 Dr. Henion received the Outstanding Contribution to Anti-Doping Science Award from the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC) for his development of a novel Book-Type Dried Plasma Spot Card and in the Fall of 2017 Dr. Henion was the winner of the 2018 Bioanalysis Outstanding Contribution Award (BOSCA). In December 2019 Dr. Henion retired from Advion, Inc. and is now a consultant for Henion Enterprises.

The cannabis industry is growing rapidly while providing commercial opportunities as well as new challenges. In the absence of FDA regulations, the anecdotal medicinal benefits of CBD along with possible other ‘entourage’ chemicals in the cannabis plant have fostered a ‘wild, wild west’ model for the commercial development of new products for human as well as companion pet treatments. This has created a need for ensuring the cannabis-derived products are safe and effective for the family pet as well as its human caretakers. This begs for technical analytical capabilities and laboratory integrity for providing reliable, accurate analytical services.

This introductory course will introduce the key analytical techniques currently employed in modern analytical service laboratories for the analysis of cannabis-derived products. These techniques include HPLC/UV, GC/MS, LC/MS, LC/MS/MS and ICP/MS. This course will introduce the new student to the basic principles of these analytical techniques along with the important sample preparation procedures necessary to prepare a cannabis ‘sample’ for analysis by one or more of these analytical techniques. A bachelor’s degree in analytical and organic chemistry is considered a very helpful foundation for the interested student.

1. Learn the differences between cannabis, hemp and marijuana.

2. Learn how important yet challenging sample preparation is for the many different sample matrices and widely different target chemical compounds which must be isolated and quantitatively measured.

3. Learn why just one analytical instrumental technique is inadequate to do provide sensitive, accurate and precise qualitative as well as quantitative measurements of cannabis-derived chemicals.

4. Learn what ‘potency’ means with respect to a cannabis sample.

5. Learn why toxic chemicals are unfortunately important with regard to the cannabis safety and efficacy.

6. Learn how the seemingly important role terpenes and other cannabis botanical components contribute to the apparent ‘entourage’ effects of cannabis.

7. Learn why residual solvents may be a concern in the production of some cannabis-derived products.

8. Learn why mold often is present on cannabis plant surfaces which produces very toxic chemicals called aflatoxins.

9. Learn how cannabis plants are hyperaccumulators of heavy metals from the soil and that it is very important to demonstrate that commercial products have been analyzed for heavy metals and shown to be free of these very toxic metals.

10. Learn why a person using cannabis-derived products can have clinical illness symptoms that are common to other ailments such which physicians should become aware of as they diagnose patients and prescribe treatment.

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).

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.