Niloofar Abolhasani Khaje is a PhD candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology from the University of Mississippi under Prof. Joshua Sharp’s supervision. She has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She is passionate about developing new mass spectrometry-based methods for studying the structure-function relationships of biomolecules. She has developed novel methods for data collection of Hydroxyl Radical Protein Footprinting (HRPF) via Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins (FPOP) that allow for more efficient collection and analysis of the resulting data. She accomplished this by developing an LC-MS/MS method that allows coelution of isomeric oxidized peptides, which don’t coelute under standard Reverse Phase (RP) LC-MS/MS methods, while separating different peptides. She also demonstrated that the coeluted isomeric peptides could be accurately quantitated using data-dependent acquisition methods instead of the time consuming data-independent methods that have to be used with RP methods. In collaboration with other members of the Sharp lab and labs across the country, Niloofar is developing methods to transform HRPF-FPOP MS into a structural technique. This requires adapting current methods in computational modeling to use HRPF-FPOP data to allow for structure determination of biomolecules that would be difficult using the standard X-ray crystallography, NMR, and cryo-EM methods.

I am a current PhD candidate in Clinical Bioanalytical Chemistry at Cleveland State University conducting research in colorectal cancer by DIA proteomics.

Colleen is a postdoctoral fellow position in the Interventional Radiology Department at UT MD Anderson and earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she began her research in cardiovascular health and thermoregulation. Her background in material science and biomedical engineering provide a unique approach to her research by combining engineering concepts and physiology. Colleen hopes to continue her research as a professor and inspire the next generation of scientists and researchers. Experience in research, teaching (2 semesters as a Graduate Student Instructor), and service (Rackham Student Government Vice President).

Demonstrated history of working in the higher education administration from Rackham Student Government leadership positions. Skilled in Image Analysis, Small Animal Research, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Leadership, MATLAB, Data Analysis, Statistics, and Microsoft Excel/Powerpoint/Word.

Jessica A. Espino is a Ph. D. candidate in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, working under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Jones. Currently, her work focuses on the development of a hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HRPF) method to study protein structure and protein-protein interactions coupled to mass spectrometry.

I received my bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Sharif University of Technology, which is the most prestigious university in Iran. To pursue my scientific life as an analytical chemist, I joined the University of Florida. I am currently a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. My research now focuses on finding biomarkers in pancreatic tissue by using Mass Spectrometry MADLI and DESI Imaging. Simultaneously I am using the LC-MS method to compare the data to the Imaging method by employing statistical analysis. In the future, my focus is primary on implementing machine learning into the MS-MSI analysis.

Amber is VP of MSACL and co-founder and developer of BadgerScan. Amber earned a BS in Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego. Post-graduation, Amber was involved in a startup company developing computer vision algorithms. After the wee company was purchased by a proper non-startup company, Amber spent eight years practicing the development of proper-production-quality code. This was followed by five years at The Scripps Research Institute in an Electron Microscopy lab. A side project developing the BadgerScan lead collection App pulled Amber into the MSACL community.

Mass spectrometric researcher with 9 years experience in clinical pharmacokinetics and metabolomics.

Hoda Safari Yazd is a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry at the University of Florida and working under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. She received her B.Sc. in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology in 2015 and her M.Sc. in computational chemistry from the same school in 2017. Hoda's research at UF primarily focuses on combining analytical chemistry tools and scientific programming for the metabolomic discovery of rare disorders. She is currently working on two projects; the first project concentrates on the detection of new biomarkers in meningiomas to improve early detection of this disease by employing machine learning as a tool on mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data. The second project is focused on the characterization of rare X-chromosome deletion disorders using metabolomics and lipidomics workflows by UHPLC-HRMS on neural progenitor cells. Hoda is one of the founding members and main organizers of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL-ECN).

I will soon join PhD in Biomedical Sciences at The University of Auckland New Zealand. I will be working under Dr. Gus Grey on Developing a Nanovesicle-Based Therapeutic Strategy to Delay the Onset of Age-Related Nuclear Cataract which will involve preparation and delivery of nanovesicles in the nucleus of the lens and visualization by Imaging Mass Spectrometry and Confocal Microscopy.
I have completed my M.Sc. in Applied Microbiology during which I had done my final semester thesis from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India. I worked on Project entitled ‘Acetylation; for the validation of peptide sequence using Mass Spectrometery' at Dr. M.V Jagannadham's Lab. For this, Pseudomonas syringae LZ4W was the model organism. LC-MS/MS (Thermo fisher Q-Exactive HF) approach validated 672 identified from 1726 acetylated peptides.

Ethan Yang is a PhD candidate in Prof. Pierre Chaurand’s lab at the University of Montreal. His research primarily focuses on elaborating new techniques to enhance the sensitivity and selectivity of MALDI-TOF imaging mass spectrometry for use in fundamental and clinical research to better elucidate lipid biomarkers on thin tissue sections. He obtained his B.Sc. at McGill University, majoring in Biochemistry. Since 2012, he has been an active member of the Let’s Talk Science site in Montreal, a national non-profit organization focused on promoting interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in youth. He is also a founding member and one of the main organizers of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN).

Dr. Yost is the University Professor and Head of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Florida. He is also director of the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics (SECIM) and of NIH’s Metabolomics Consortium Coordinating Center (M3C). He is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of analytical chemistry, particularly tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). His research has been recognized with the ASMS Award for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, the MSACL Award for Distinguished Contribution to Clinical Mass Spectrometry, and the Florida Academy of Sciences Medal. Dr. Yost currently serves as President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS).

I am a bioanalytical chemist with more than 10 years's mass spectrometry experience. My research focuses on application novel ion mobility-mass spectrometry technique to multi-omics to understand important disease state and clinical applications.