MASSMATTERS
Introducing the new Biomacromolecular Structure SIG
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Now the fuss has died down after the Manchester meeting, the Executive Committee starts to think about the Annual meeting in Sheffield. Before that though I have an Ambient Ionisation SIG Meeting to put together and there are other SIG meetings planned – keep an eye on the website for details. We also want to introduce a new Special Interest Group – the Biomacromolecular Structure SIG. We will be hearing more from this group during the year.
Thanks to all of you who filled in the questionnaire around the future of Mass Matters, it was great to hear that we are predominantly providing what people want but we wanted to ask before potentially any change to a digital only version. As ~45% of respondents wanted to continue to receive Mass Matters in print then we will continue in this manner but will also make it available electronically on the website. We had many suggestions as to what we should include, unfortunately due to timelines it is unlikely we would be able to include jobs, funding or scholarships (apart from the BMSS calls for Summer Students and Research Grants). However, there are several areas which came up that we can try and incorporate; careers in mass spectrometry with descriptions of different types of roles as this would be of interest to younger members. There was also a desire to have more teaching – explaining techniques, nomenclature and fundamentals or protocols/tips. We have sort of started this with our ‘How to do a demo’ section. There was also a desire to see some historical snapshots, so we’ll see what we can do!
There was also a desire to hear more about the committee activities and to celebrate our success with interviews with our award winners. You can read about the new BMSS Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Sub-Committee and the improved Summer Studentship Grants.
If anybody would like to contribute an article on one of the themes mentioned, then please let me know.
Enjoy a well-deserved rest over the holidays.
Andy Ray BMSS Publicity Secretary
Advertise your company in Mass Matters or on our website. For details please contact admin@bmss.org.uk
Chair’s Report
A warm welcome to the next edition of Mass Matters! I don’t know about everyone else but where has 2019 disappeared to? The old saying ‘time flies’ but it seems like it’s been a blink of the eye and it’s gone. As I write this article and reflect back on 2019, it’s been a busy year for the BMSS and its committee members and one that I can firmly say has been a very successful one too.
The new BMSS website and Society Management System is fully up and running and has firmly been put through its paces with the Annual Meeting and subsequent SIG events. Most of our members would probably not appreciate the amount of administration that takes place to make a Society such as ours operate. Our Administrator, prior to the implementation of the system, did everything by a multitude of spreadsheets, databases and pieces of paper and it was a real burden and sometimes a headache. With the new system in place, registrations for meetings, membership renewals, abstract submissions and day to day tasks have been somewhat streamlined making things more efficient. The website has also taken shape with new graphics and content, and if any of our members would like to add news to the page please feel free to contact us so that it can be posted.
For those who attended, I am sure that you would agree that the 40th Annual BMSS Meeting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester was a resounding success in 2019. We had a record number of registrations at over 450. The exhibition hall was busy and vibrant which is always well received by the valued sponsors and exhibitors who continue to take the time and money to support the BMSS activities. We had a really great scientific program with some excellent lectures and I would personally like to thank Neil Oldham as Papers Secretary for putting together an excellent programme. The Maccoll lecture was delivered by Jon Amster from Univ of Georgia; The Chair’s lecture was delivered by Gary Glish from the Univ of North Carolina, and one of the most interesting lectures I have seen was delivered by Angela Lamb from the British Geological Survey on the life of Richard III aided by isotope MS analysis. We had almost 200 scientific posters being presented and the poster sessions were well attended with some great science being discussed. With regards to the social programme, we had a slight hiccup with the conference dinner due to a supplier issue with only a week to go but Mark McDowall and Lisa Sage pulled one ‘out of the bag’ and everything
went ahead as normal at the very last minute. Thanks to their hard work on averting the conference dinner from ending up as a trip to the local chippy! And finally, it was a proud moment for me to be able to present the BMSS Medal to Alison Ashcroft from the Astbury Centre at Univ. of Leeds in recognition of her career and dedication to the development of mass spectrometry. Whilst we had some slight AV issues and I fluffed my speech, it was great to be able to present the medal to Alison that evening in front of many of her friends and colleagues.
You will be pleased to note that the 41st Annual Meeting programme in 2020 in Sheffield is beginning to take shape nicely and registration/ abstract submission will open sometime in late January 2020 so keep an eye out for this. We have an Ambient Ionisation SIG event on the 6th Feb 2020 and registration/ abstract submission is now open. Summer Studentships are open for application with the deadline for submission being 17th Jan. 2020. Please note that the BMSS have sanctioned an enhanced programme to the Summer Studentship which have been described in this edition of Mass Matters along with an increase in line with current living wage.
An inclusive award aimed at all those who have had a sustained input into the society Eligibility criteria:
• Respected position within the UK mass spectrometry community
• Member of BMSS for a significant amount of career
• Made notable contributions to the Society, attending and or making regular scientific contributions to BMSS sponsored meetings
• See BMSS.ORG.UK for details
don’t have a lapse in membership. And finally, if any member of the BMSS would like to consider being on a diverse, inclusive and friendly committee please get in touch to find out what it’s like to serve as a BMSS trustee and to serve it's members. You never know, you may have the chance to be part of the continuing 50yr+ history of the BMSS - the world’s 1st Mass Spectrometry Society!
So as the Festive period is almost upon us and 2019 comes to an end, I would like to wish all our members the very best for the Christmas season and a Very Happy New Year!
Ashley Sage, BMSS Chair
Ashley Sage, BMSS Chair
Diary Dates
10th January 2020 LGBTQ+ STEMinar
29 – 31st January 2020 HTC-16
6th February 2020
19th March 2020
31st May – 4th June 2020
Ambient Ionisation SIG
London Biological Discussion Group
68th ASMS
12th – 15th June 2020 Grass Roots 5: Fundamentals of liquid chromatography
18th June 2020
London Biological Discussion Group
2019 BMSS membership subscription
Don’t miss out, renew your BMSS membership subscription for 2019
University of Birmingham
Ghent, Belgium
University of Surrey
David Games College
Houston, Texas
University of Cumbria, Grasmere
Kings College, London
Don’t miss out, renew your BMSS membership subscription for 2020! You can renew quickly and easily on-line by visiting the BMSS Website, www. bmss.org.uk Why not also encourage colleagues to join the BMSS? As a member of the BMSS they will:
• Be part of a community of people with similar interests
• Have the opportunity to keep up to date with recent technological developments, learn more about MS and share knowledge and experience e.g. by joining Special Interest Groups (SIG’s)
• Be eligible to apply for grants towards small
items of equipment, summer studentships and conference travel
• Be entitled to discounts for BMSS meetings
• Benefit from reduced subscription fees to the European Journal of Mass Spectrometry
• Receive copies of Mass Matters, the official publication of the BMSS, published three times a year
• Benefit from 20% off relevant book titles when purchased via Wiley Publishing (discount code required)
Students: Can benefit from our education programme by applying for travel grants,
part in the Barber oral prize and Bordoli poster prize competitions. All student members also receive a general mass spectrometry text book upon joining.
New & Established spectrometrists: Can benefit from courses, careers events, links with other societies (such as ChromSoc. & RSC) and networking via the BMSS Annual Conference and Special Interest Group Meetings.
Any membership queries should be directed to: Lisa Sage, BMSS Administrator
T: (01606) 810562
E: admin@bmss.org.uk
PAPERS: HOT OFF THE PRESS
Recent publications by BMSS members...
Hale O. J., Morris M., Jones B., Reynolds C. K., & Cramer R. (2019). Liquid Atmospheric Pressure Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization Mass Spectrometry Adds Enhanced Functionalities to MALDI MS Profiling for Disease Diagnostics. ACS Omega, 4(7), 12759–12765. doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b01476
Liquid AP-MALDI MS profiling was applied to the detection of bovine mastitis by analysis of milk extracts. The detection of multiply charged proteinaceous ions proved critical for accurate classification. Top-down MS/MS was performed in order to identify protein ions and provided evidence of casein degradation in the milk of mastitis-stricken animals.
Rapid identification of species, sex and maturity by mass spectrometric analysis of animal faeces.
Nicola B. Davidson, Natalie I. Koch, Joscelyn Sarsby, Emrys Jones, Jane L. Hurst and Robert J. Beynon. BMC Biology (2019) 17:66 https://doi. org/10.1186/s12915-019-0686-9
REIMS, and its implementation as the iKnife, has been proven of value in surgery and in food quality control.
However, a recent paper from the
Centre for Proteome Research at the University of Liverpool has taken an oblique look at REIMS, and applied it to the analysis of faecal samples from wild rodents. The REIMS spectrum is detailed and informative, and the group have shown that it is possible to discriminate species, sex and even maturity. This information would be of enormous value to field ecologists, where faecal samples are often the only ‘calling card’ left by the local fauna. The potential of REIMS to reconstruct a local population demographic is yet to be tested, but looks extremely promising.
Waszczak N., DeFlorio R., Ismael A., Cheng N., Stone D.E., Metodiev M.V. Quantitative proteomics reveals a Gα/MAPK signaling hub that controls pheromone-induced cellular polarization in yeast. J. Proteomics. 2019, Sep. 15;207:103467. doi:10.1016/j.jprot.2019.103467.
Epub 2019, Jul 24. PubMed PMID: 31351147. The mating-specific yeast Gα controls pheromone signaling by sequestering Gβγ and by regulating
the Fus3 MAP kinase. Disrupting Gα-Fus3 interaction leads to severe defects in chemotropism. Gα concentrates at the chemotropic growth site where Fus3 is required for the phosphorylation of two known targets. In this study the authors screened for additional proteins whose phosphorylation depends on pheromone stimulation and Gα-Fus3 interaction. Using a mutant form of Gα severely defective in Fus3-binding, GαDSD, and quantitative mass spectrometry, fourteen proteins were identified as potential targets of Gα-recruited Fus3, ten of which were previously implicated in cell polarity and morphogenesis.
Heaney L.M. Applying mass spectrometry-based assays to explore gut microbial metabolism and associations with disease. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2019; doi: 10.1515/cclm2019-0974.
Metabolites released by the gut microbiome are gaining interest through the mounting evidence of their influential role in human health and disease. Investigations have been accelerated through mass spectrometry-based assays
to quantitatively assess metabolite concentrations in laboratory- and animal-based experiments, as well as direct circulating measurements in clinical populations. This review introduces mass spectrometry as a clinical tool to explore the impact of these metabolites on disease.
“Application of hot-stage microscopy Direct Analysis in RealTime mass spectrometry (HDM) to the analysis of polymers”, Gage P. Ashton, Lindsay P. Harding*, Gareth M. B. Parkes*, Sophie E. Pownall, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 2019, doi: 10.1002/rcm.8522
HDM is a new technique which combines simultaneous optical measurements and ambient ionisation mass spectrometry. Physical and chemical information can be obtained as a function of sample temperature, in real-time. The thermal expansion and release of volatile oligomers from various grades of silicone was measured. Coefficients of thermal expansion were calculated from optical data which agreed with conventional measurements. In addition, two samples of beach sand were analysed and found to contain polyethylene and polystyrene.
Results indicate that HDM can be successfully applied to the characterisation of a wide range of polymers including those in complex matrices.
Towards a generic method for ion chromatography–mass spectrometry of low molecular weight amines in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development
Zoe Lewis, Bethany A. Jackson, Alex Crampton, Andrew D. Ray, Stephen W. Holman
Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/ rcm.8680
Low molecular weight amines are encountered in pharmaceutical analysis e.g. as reactants in chemical syntheses, but are challenging to analyse by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS) due to their high polarity causing poor retention. Ion chromatography-MS (IC-MS) is an emerging technique for polar molecule analysis that offers better separation. A generic IC-MS method would overcome problems associated with using UHPLC/MS in drug discovery and development environments.
The performance attributes were investigated and optimised for low molecular weight amine analysis. Organic solvents and acidic additives were evaluated as make-up flow components to promote ESI, with 0.05 % acetic acid in ethanol optimal for producing protonated molecules.
The hydrogen bonding capability of amines led to abundant protonated molecule-solvent complexes; optimisation of source conditions reduced them, with CID voltage having a strong effect. The detection limit was ≤ 1.78 ng for the amines analysed, which is fit-for-purpose for an open access chemistry environment.
PAPERS: HOT OFF THE
representative of impurities, the presence of the 2-butynoic acid did not impact the linearity or limit of detection observed for the acids; R2 values greater than 0.98 were obtained for all acids with and without the presence of 2-butynoic acid with a limit of detection at 1 ppb for all but one of the acids
matrix); participants were asked to analyse these samples multiple times, over multiple days to allow assessment of repeatability.
Impurity analysis of 2-butynoic acid by ion chromatography–mass spectrometry
Thomas A. Corry, Bethany A. Jackson, Andrew D. Ray
Journal of Chromatography A 1604 (2019) 460470 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.chroma.2019.46
Small organic acids are widely used within the pharmaceutical industry but can be difficult to analyse. Ion chromatography is a suitable technique for the analysis of these acids but method development can be hindered as mass spectrometry is not often used as a detector; this means that peak tracking and peak purity cannot be performed. The authors report method development for the analysis of 2-butynoic acid, where by using electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry, peak purity was investigated and the presence of co-eluting impurities determined. Optimisation of the additives in the make-up flow to the mass spectrometer was shown to have an impact on the response observed. A standard series of organic acids were analysed spiked in to 2-butynoic acid at levels
Results of the first and second British Mass Spectrometry Society interlaboratory studies on ambient mass spectrometry
Bryan J. McCullough, Christopher J. Hopley
Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/ rcm.8534
As the popularity of ambient ionisation grows, so too does the importance of understanding its capabilities and limitations. The British Mass Spectrometry Society Special Interest Group on Ambient Ionisation has carried out two studies into the use of ambient ionisation, the results of which are presented here.
The first study (study 1) examined the detection and quantitation capabilities of ambient ionisation while the second examined repeatability and robustness. For study 1 participants were sent a range of samples including two calibration sample sets and asked to analyse them. For study 2, two samples containing the same eight-component mixture were provided (one in solvent, one in
Study 1 showed that small, polar compounds were well detected by the participants while lower polarity compounds were less well detected. For many samples the introduction method appeared to be a significant factor in the observed spectra. The quantitation study gave good results but revealed significant variability. For study 2 the mean repeatabilities were 65% in solvent and 88% in matrix. The inclusion of an internal standard was shown to greatly improve repeatability.
Ambient ionisation is capable of ionising a wide range of compounds with good precision and excellent repeatability; however, in order to obtain such data care must be taken with the experimental design. The data can be significantly improved with a well-chosen internal standard.
Interview with Prof. Frank Pullen
Emeritus Professor of Pharmaceutical Analysis, University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
Reflections on a career in mass spectrometry.
How did you first become interested in mass spectrometry?
I left school with OND in Science and went looking for a job in analytical chemistry. I was lucky enough to get an interview at Wellcome Research Labs. in Beckenham, who were looking for someone to join their analytical chemistry group. I went for the interview, and it was there that I was shown their AEI MS902 mass spectrometer, and was asked if I would like a job operating it. In the early 70s, mass spectrometry was a largely unknown technique, but as soon as I saw this enormous machine made of stainless steel with loads of knobs and dials, well it was ‘love at first sight’ and I was hooked. They offered me the job, which I immediately accepted, and that was how it all started. From that day forward I never looked back. Mass spectrometry has given me the greatest career that I could have ever wished for, and probably not many people can say that.
What do you think are your greatest contributions in encouraging young people to pursue mass spectrometry as a career?
Encouraging young aspiring scientists to ‘have a go’ and explore what the technique can do. Many times, in my long career, young scientists working with me have asked ‘do you think this compound will give me a mass spectrum?’ and my stock answer has always been
‘well you will not know unless you do the experiment’. I have always tried to get young scientists to try things for themselves, after all they never learn unless they try, and they must not to be afraid of making mistakes providing that they learn from those experiences. That is how I learnt. It was something my first supervisor taught me; he made me realise that scientific knowledge is only limited by your lack of imagination and your own fear to venture into the unknown. No one has all the answers, and young people need to be encouraged to push the boundaries of what they think is possible. There are too many supervisors who stifle creativity and would rather people use tried and tested approaches; where is the fun in that? Mass spectrometry is an exciting technique, probably one of the most exciting analytical techniques around, and with the right encouragement, the next generation of young scientists are going to take the technique into areas that us ‘old guard’ will only be able to stand back and look at with awe and wonder!
In what new areas could mass spectrometry make a significant impact- are new approaches and thinking necessary for these applications?
There are a number of exciting areas where mass spectrometry has been making significant advances recently. With the advent of ambient ionisation, one of those areas has been in surgical procedures. The ‘i knife’ approach is pioneering the use of mass spectrometry in the operating theatre. It is being used to identify normal from cancerous brain tissue in real time, thus improving the accuracy of tumour identification and removal. This approach, and others such as mass spec. imaging etc., have shown that mass spectrometry can be a powerful tool in the hunt for cancers in the body, and has opened up the
whole area of ‘disease identification’. With the inherent high sensitivity of mass spectrometry, this whole area is fertile ground for the technique, and it will soon become invaluable to the medical community in the near future. Space exploration is also a potential area for mass spectrometry. The ability to construct mass spectrometers, send them into space and then operate them remotely is a great challenge, but one that is growing in popularity especially as we begin to send unmanned craft to unexplored planets. Those craft will need mass spectrometers on board to enable us to detect the presence of the building blocks of life and other components that can support life. Another area is the detection of low levels of contaminants in water and the atmosphere. The human race has created many problems in nature, but mass spectrometrybased approaches can at least help our current generation and the next generation of scientists identify the problems and monitor our progress in rectifying the errors of the past. All of this will need new approaches and new thinking. We need to ensure that the next generation of mass spectrometrists are equipped with the necessary enthusiasm and confidence to recognise that ‘the road to success is always under construction’ and that they will be responsible for the next section of that exciting road.
What advice would you give a scientist starting out in mass spectrometry?
Any career has to be fun as well as challenging! Mass spectrometry always has been, and always will be the technique that is at the ‘cutting edge’ of analysis. That means it is a technique that is both frustrating as well as rewarding at the same time. There is no such thing as a failed experiment. The result will tell you something and will enable you to try some other approach to
the problem. You will never stop learning and you will always be striving to get a better result. So the best advice I would give any scientist starting out in this area is always be positive; always question things; no one has all the answers. Everyone in the mass spectrometry community will love to talk about their experiences, so at conferences ask questions, talk to the ‘old guard’ about your research, they will always be interested in your work and will be happy to share their experiences with you. After all, ‘it’s good to talk!’
Where do you see the future of mass spectrometry in the next ten years- can it still be a career path for young people?
I think that today more than ever before, mass spectrometry is the technique that will have the biggest impact in the area of analytical science. Its’ inherent sensitivity as well as its adaptability makes it almost the universal detector. When I started out in the early 70’s it was a technique considered as being on the ‘lunatic fringe’ of analytical science, but since then it has made significant inroads and has now eclipsed many of the other more classical techniques. This, in my opinion, will only continue, and so I think the future is exciting and mind blowing, I only wish I could start all over again myself. M.S. is a technique that keeps giving and growing. It is here to stay and career prospects within the discipline have never been rosier. I think the days of centralised mass spectrometry facilities in any industrial setting are disappearing because there are now so many applications that
need mass spectrometry, and the centralised facility has been replaced by focussed mass spectrometry activities associated with various work streams within the specific industry. This means that for new people looking for positions within an industrial setting, the vacancies are now within multidiscipline teams which are focussed on specific functions within the industrial process. When I started out, I could never have predicted the time when mass spectrometry would be a critical part of a bigger process and that the mass spectrometrist would be a key part of a multidisciplinary team containing chemists, chromatographers, IT experts, molecular modellers etc, but those teams are now becoming an integral part of the pharmaceutical industry and their popularity continues to grow. Along with that change of
approach there is a growing need for mass spectrometrists who can interact with these other disciplines. So in my opinion the need for mass spectrometrists within industry is increasing, but those people need to be “savvy” with other disciplines and be able to “speak” their language and understand their needs and how mass spectrometry can help with the outcome. That is both a challenge but also an opportunity for new people looking at mass spectrometry roles within industry.
Could you describe your lasting memories/most satisfying achievements of your career in mass spectrometry?
This is a difficult question, as there are so many. I suppose my lasting memory would be all the people who I have met during my
career, all the fascinating chats that I have shared with mass spectrometrists over the years. I have been fortunate to have met and conversed with many of the famous people in this area of science and those discussions have and continue to both excite and challenge me. As I have gone through life I have realised that there is no such thing as a wasted conversation; I learn something from every discussion that I have with people both young and old. My most satisfying achievement is easier to answer. It’s seeing young people grow as scientists and achieve more than they thought was possible. All supervisors should strive to help our next generation strive to become better than we were. Young scientists are our future, and we should equip them with the tools to achieve greatness,
which will then allow us to hand the baton of future research over to them in the knowledge that it is in safe hands!
Welcome to the new Biomacromolecular Structure SIG
NEW! Biomacromolecular Structure SIG, BMSS has a new SIG!
Background. The study of biomacromolecular structure is a growth area in mass spectrometry. A number of methods have been developed to study the higher structure (e.g. the tertiary and quaternary structure of proteins) and conformational dynamics of biomacromolecules, including native MS, ion mobility-MS, hydrogendeuterium exchange (HDX), covalent labelling/footprinting and chemical crosslinking. There is increasing uptake of these methods within the MS community in the UK, as well as a focus on developing enabling instrumentation and refining methodologies.
The biological and chemical sciences communities in the UK more generally are increasingly interested in MS-based methods to interrogate biomacromolecular structure, especially as part of integrated structural biology pipelines (where these data are combined with,
for example, electron microscopy, computational modelling or lowresolution structural methods).
This new SIG has a 5-year mission to provide training opportunities and guidelines for best practice in the collection of experimental data, while also providing a forum for the dissemination of the latest research in the field and fostering further collaboration and networking amongst the community.
Coordinators.
The SIG will be coordinated by Anton Calabrese (University of Leeds), Joe Gault (University of Oxford) and Aneika Leney (University of Birmingham), all early career researchers who are actively involved in the mass spectrometry community in the UK. Watch this space and keep an eye on the BMSS website for upcoming activities!
How To Have a Good Instrument Demo
A new mass spectrometer is a huge investment for any lab with a variety of vendors and instrumentation greater than ever before. Even the simplest quantitation workflow faces difficult choices of nominal mass versus high-resolution, how sensitive do you need to be versus at what cost? So how best to design your instrument demo to get the best instrument for the job?
Step 1. Talk to your colleagues. Think about if this instrument is to address current needs, or also future needs. How much space do you have, where is this mythical instrument going to live.
Step 2. Talk to the Sales person and the demo chemist. It’s without question that you know your samples better than anyone else, however, the demo chemist might have seen something just like it the week before and might have a few tricks up their sleeve. Sometimes it may feel like the sales person is trying to squeeze as much of your capex budget as possible - we’re really just helping you develop the business case, so you can get the best instrument possible. The real thing to be aware of is futureproofing your lab. Your triple-quad might be perfectly good for the work you have now, however, what comes in the door next week might need some new tools in the tool chest. This is when it’s good to discuss advanced technologies like high-resolution, hybrid instruments, or ion mobility.
Step 3. What do you want to see? (part 1) Is your interest the absolute lowest LLOQ possible for your samples? Is your interest what glycoforms we could identify on your new protein? Do you want to see how some new instrument beats the one you currently have from eight years ago?
Before you step into your demo be clear about what it has to do and
what the demo is going to show you. If you don’t know what you want from a demo, then it won’t aid your purchase.
Step 4. Shortlist your instruments. Now I’m not insinuating you decide on the Mass Spectrometer based on pictures alone but be sure what your price, expectations, and hardware requirements are going to be before you send samples. If you aren’t sure between quads or ToF’s before a demo, you probably won’t be after you’ve got three vendors all throwing two instruments at you with various pros and cons. By this stage you should know your own needs and which technologies you should be focusing on.
Step 5. Send the right samples. You may only do a single workflow in your lab making sample choice quite simple, however when your instrument is going to be doing a lot of things for a lot of labs you may be tempted to throw in the whole kitchen sink. Unfortunately, we demo chemists are only human and if we’re given a demo with eight different applications and seventeen different sample types we’re not going to be able to do any of them as well as you would like. We are Jacks of all Trades, Master of None. A few well-chosen samples give us more time to optimise and improve and really work out what the instrument can do for you. The most important factor is to send something that you have characterised like a reference or control sample. If you don’t know what to expect from a sample, then you won’t know what’s common or impressive. Also, please don’t send us anything too dangerous like explosives or anthrax, we simply don’t have the kit or expertise to deal with weapons of mass destruction.
Step 6. Send the right method (and be ok with us throwing it away).
Following on from my previous point our lives are made much easier when we have a reference or starter method like columns, buffers, transitions etc. The quicker we get a method working, the more time we have to get it working better. However, the method you have might not have been updated since it was made, and we might be able to make it better. Some labs run an MS method or an enzyme digestion a certain way because the lab head did it that way in their PhD some time during John Major’s stint as Prime Minister. Giving us the freedom to try an updated column, or some different buffers really maximises our chance of showing you peak instrument performance for your samples.
Step 7. Be aware things go wrong. We generally only get a matter of days with your samples before you visit for a demo and therefore, we are at the mercy of chaos if things go wrong. Our demo instruments are ridden hard and put away wet. We flip LC’s from doing a reverse phase small molecule in urine to an intact protein in HILIC or similar methods daily, and our instruments will see more sample types in a month than some will in their lifetimes. If our LC’s develop an issue or we have to stop to clean an instrument it can eat up huge chunks of our analysis time. So, if you come to a demo and your chemist is looking flustered and apologising, remember that they’ve probably been skipping meals to get your demo back on track. If there’s something you were expecting to see in the demo and we’ve missed it, there’s probably a good reason.
Step 8. What do you want to see? (part 2). If you’ve been following my step by step guide then back in step 1you decided what you wanted to see on your instrument. This is when we actually show you. We could easily fill a demo report with
chromatograms and calibration lines for all your samples to generate a hundred-page report which you will skim through. We’d rather give you a couple of slides which pinpoint the exact criteria you wanted to see. Now when you have all the vendors lined up side by side you can make a well-informed decision on each of their performances.
Step 9. Beyond Hardware. So, you’ve decided vendor A has the best mass spectrometer for your samples, but vendor B and C were pretty close behind. Remember this box is going to sit in your lab for the best part of a decade or beyond. Think about how you’d like to be trained by the chemist sat across from you, think about a vendor’s reputation for service contracts, think about if you understood the software they just showed you or if you think it would be difficult to use. Many of your decisions up to this point may have been hardware focused but there are a lot of other factors that should be considered.
Final points. At the end of the day remember that you are assessing the complete LC-MS system and software. You are not here to check how well a demo chemist is at running an instrument or making a calibration line. And anything you didn’t like about the instrument, software or demo please give us real honest feedback. We genuinely appreciate it, especially when we can have a real discussion about what was good and bad. If you don’t tell us what you didn’t like about our kit, then we don’t tell R&D and you’re depriving a future you from something that really does what you want.
20 Years Keeping The (Plasma)
Flame Alive
Joseph Ready, PhD Researcher, Sheffield Hallam University.
In front of the Micromass Platform ICP-MS in Manchester was where I spent many of the early months of my PhD from 2000 onwards, being constantly and consistently disappointed by an unhappy plasma, with Fadi Abou-Shakra by my side sharing the frustration. The instrument was linked up to a HPLC and we were playing with organic mobile phases, flow rates, spray chambers and nebulisers - hopeful that the perfect conditions were reached and the plasma stayed lit ready for an HPLC injection and something meaningful was achieved. And not just that painstaking task but we set ourselves the challenge also of monitoring a chlorinecontaining drug. There was born the ‘chloratogram’ and my first publication1. With AstraZeneca sponsoring my PhD I spent months at Alderley Edge within the DMPK team and played on their same instrument – they were using it for the quantitative determination of their platinum anticancer drug.
encounters were when I was asked to make an assessment of our use of the instrumentation to monitor heavy metal impurities from catalytic processes, in our APIs (USP <231>). We looked at a number of models, with a view to replacing the colorimetric procedures. In the end we didn’t move forward with the change, but now that shift in technology has happened.
A few years later back in academia at Keele University one of my PhD studentships was a CASE award with AstraZeneca and together we developed the use of ICPMS employed in immunoassays, with lanthanide and gold-tagged
recent publication was a visit back to immunoassay development –this time exploring the use of dried blood spot samples2.
These days, the plasma extinguishing certainly isn’t a problem and I barely look twice at it unless something is going to be particularly colourful! At Sheffield Hallam the excitement is now entirely in the images that are produced via our LA-ICPMS instrumentation – ESI NWR213 –Perkin Elmer NexIon 350X and Iolite software. In the little research time I have I work with colleagues within the university and a range of other institutions, investigating elemental
1. Duckett C.J., Bailey N.J.C., Walker H., Abou-Shakra F., Wilson I.D., Lindon J.C., Nicholson J.K., Quantitation in gradient highperformance liquid chromatography/ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using diclofenac and chlorpromazine. Rapid. Comm. Mass. Spect., 2002, 16 (4): 245-247.
2. Hogeling S.M., Cox M.T., Bradshaw R.M., Smith D.P., Duckett C.J., Quantification of proteins in whole blood, plasma and DBS, with element-labelled antibody detection by ICP-MS. Anal. Biochem. 2019, 575: 10-16.
Catherine Duckett is a Senior Lecturer in Analytical Science at Sheffield Hallam University, carrying out multidisciplinary research within the Centre for Mass Spectrometry Imaging - Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre. She chaired the session on ‘Inorganic & Isotope Ratio MS’ at BMSS40 in September.
My ‘drug’ metabolism animal studies were of simple molecules with Cl-, Br- or I- moieties and the quantification aspect was supported by conventional radio-labelled analysis. It wasn’t long before it felt very routine to hyphenate an HPLC to both a TOFMS, ICPMS and on occasions to NMR. Another application of ICPMS was cemented. I was enticed to industry after my PhD in 2004 and had a break from plasma glare as a Senior Scientist in NMR in Chemical Development at GSK, Stevenage. My only ICPMS
antibodies. We carried out validation with conventional ELISA’s, and we also delved into some phosphorous and sulfur metabolite profiling by UPLC-ICPMS on a Perkin Elmer ELAN DRCe. Lanthanides and gold were easy (although gold is annoyingly ‘sticky’ to any tubing) but phosphorous and sulfur are in the more challenging top right of the periodic table and suffer numerous interferences! But there are work arounds using reaction cell mode, which was a welcome development to instrumentation in the early 2000’s. I followed the work of Scott Tanner at the University of Toronto for a number of years for his bioassay work and in fact my most
distributions in tissue sections to help understand for example protein function in disease. I am always impressed by the work of Dominic Hare at the Florey in Australia – an atomic pathology lab is certainly one of the dreams!
The accompanying image from our instrument of a gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent in a mouse model tumour (with Matthew Gentry and Adam McMahon at the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, Manchester) really highlights how bright the future is for this technique. This flame will be burning for another 20 years!
Update on the UK Mass Spectrometry Vision Activity
Peter O'Connor, Jackie Mosely, Tony Bristow, Gavin O’Connor, Ashley Sage, Anneke Lubben.
Background.
1. There is a changing landscape of MS innovation/application and funding in academia and industry.
2. The reduction in community support for a single centralised MS Facility, resulted in the cessation of funding of the EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Facility in Swansea.
3. Regular UKRI investments in local/regional MS capability and large initiatives e.g. Royce and RFI.
- EPSRC Request.
- EPSRC approached the BMSS in 2019 to review and project the needs and utility of mass spectrometry in science, academia, industry and society over the next 5 or even 20 years.
- The Goal of the UK Mass Spectrometry Vision Activity.
- BMSS has been tasked to produce a community backed, evidence based, vision for the
future of mass spectrometry in the UK, to support UKRI/UK government in future business planning, prioritisation and resource allocation.
- Several key drivers have been considered for the activity.
• The Industrial Strategy themes: ideas, infrastructure, business environment, people, place.
• Accompanying Life Sciences Industrial Strategy priorities.
• MS expertise as an incentive for businesses to invest in R&D in the UK.
• MS strengths in knowledge transfer and innovation in the UK resulting in real economic benefit.
• Need for trained technical staff, with sustainable career pathways to develop MS expertise.
Progress.
The BMSS executive committee appointed a subcommittee to develop a ‘Vision Document’ for mass spectrometry in the UK. The sub-committee have driven the following activities to date:
i. Developed and shared an iterative questionnaire and consultation (Delphi Study) with a diverse panel of experts (academics, non-mass spectrometry academics and industrialists) to
understand the UK MS landscape and its requirements (Delphi Method Reference: Information & Management Volume 42, December 2004, Pages 15-29).
ii. First round of questions focused on the best way to deliver mass spectrometry, subsequent rounds of questions focused on funding models.
Output to date.
i. Delphi round 1 complete and reviewed - 5 operation classes or tiers identified.
ii. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis was performed on the 5 tiers of access and funding models that are under consideration for the UKRI vision document:
a. Tier 0: Portable, robust, automated devices for non-experts.
b. Tier 1: Single group equipment.
c. Tier 2: Local/Regional facilities.
d. Tier 3: National Centres of Excellence.
e. Tier 4: A single national mass spectrometry facility.
iii. Delphi round 2 probed how these tiers could be financed, supported institutionally and staffed
Call for Research Support Grants
Members (of at least 12 months standing) may apply for small grants of up to £2,000, with matched funding, to aid their research.
The BMSS Research Support Grant aims to support small research endeavours including, but not exclusive to:
• Generating pump priming data for grant applications or research areas.
• Incoming or outgoing visits to initiate new MS-relevant collaborations/training (standard class travel/accommodation).
• MS taster for new MS users (who must join the society).
• Instrumentation (updates, repairs, add-ons, new developments of existing kit etc.).
• Promotion of industry-academic collaborations.
Full details of eligibility, how to apply and conditions for awarding grants are available on the BMSS website at www.bmss.org.uk.
- complete and under review.
iv. Presentation of a poster at BMSS40 (September 2019) on the UK Mass Spectrometry Vision activity to obtain input and feedback from the broader MS community.
v. On-going interactions with EPSRC stakeholders.
vi. Strong MS community representation at the EPSRC Analytical Science Community Workshop (held at the University of Warwick, 23 October 2019).
Developing the Message for EPSRC.
Mass spectrometry is a major analytical measurement technology which is (i) critical to a well-founded lab, (ii) strategic to all aspects of molecular science in chemistry, physics, engineering, biochemistry, biology, medicine, clinical and pharmaceutical, forensics and security/safety, (iii) pivotal across academia, government/institutions and UK industry.
The final UK Mass Spectrometry Vision document will be developed over the coming months and will be presented to EPSRC in 2020.
The New BMSS Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Sub-Committee
BMSS is committed to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion and welcomes ideas from our membership to help us to achieve this. Ensuring diversity in the British Mass Spectrometry community promotes our chances of flourishing. It is important that we take a proactive stance to attracting members from a broad range of backgrounds and with a diverse range of skills, encouraging talented scientists at all career stages to engage with the society. In order to achieve this we have formed the EDI sub-committee to champion EDI initiatives, provide a point of contact for member’s suggestions on ways we can improve the way we operate to improve how our members experience BMSS activities and to drive any changes needed within our activities to provide an equal and inclusive environment for our members.
How can I, as a member of the BMSS, help?
You will soon be receiving an anonymous survey to enable us as a sub-committee to better understand who our members are, how diverse we are currently and to help us to identify areas where we may need to prioritise introducing policies that
will improve EDI. The survey will ask you about characteristics that are protected under the 2010 Equality Act and a number of other (not protected) characteristics designed to help us understand the diversity in our membership, such as socioeconomic background. We would be really grateful if you are willing to contribute to this as it will help us to understand who our members are and help us to determine where we need to prioritise championing change in the ways we operate as a society or the support we offer to members.
We also welcome your ideas regarding ways in which we can improve the way we operate and improve inclusivity. We have already received some really useful suggestions from members on ways in which we make some small changes to make our events more inclusive and thus improve the BMSS experience for our members. We are championing these changes to ensure the future activities of the society will be conducted in as inclusive a manner as possible. Please contact a member of the sub-committee if you have any ideas on ways we could improve the environment in which we deliver BMSS activities for you.
Who are the EDI sub-committee?
Currently the EDI sub-committee is comprised of three members; Rian Griffiths, Lindsay Harding and Rhodri Owen. We are seeking new members for the sub-committee and would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in joining us on our mission to promote EDI in the BMSS. We would like the subcommittee to represent the diversity within the society and therefore encourage people of all ages, career stages, any or no religious beliefs, all races, any gender (whether or not this is the same as that assigned at birth), those that identify as nonbinary and people of any sexuality. Please contact one of the EDI subcommittee or any of the BMSS committee members if you are interested in getting involved in this or indeed any other BMSS activities.
What do the
EDI sub-committee
do?
It is our role to identify where we need to implement new policies or activities that provide an equal and inclusive environment for everyone that engages with the society and to ensure we attract a diverse range of members from the scientific community using mass spectrometry. Here are some
LGBT+ meet-up at 40th BMSS annual meeting in Manchester
In the run up to the BMSS annual meeting in Cambridge in 2018 a few members showed interest in having an informal get together with other LGBT+ members and allies. So for 2019 the BMSS executive committee supported the BMSS LGBT+ group in setting up an inaugural meet-up.
Around ten delegates came along and had a chance to meet with
members of the recently formed equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) sub-committee in the RNCM committee room. A lively discussion was had about issues facing LGBT scientists working in STEM following the publication of the ‘Exploring The Workplace For LGBT+ Physical Scientists’ report (website) back in June. Delegates in general had a positive view of BMSS as an inclusive society and
nobody reported feeling excluded due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. After meeting with the EDI sub-committee, delegates were invited along to the more informal surroundings of The Flour and Flagon pub for pre-conference dinner drinks and a chance get to know one another.
Some LGBT+ members will be heading off to the LGBT STEMinar
examples of the initiatives we have already been involved in; organising an LGBTQ+ event at the annual BMSS conference, you can read more about this in the event report (here and on the website), this event was well received by our members and will become a regular event at future annual conferences. We have also been developing the BMSS EDI webpage which signposts other groups and societies that may be of interest to our members and will be a forum for future updates on our activities. One of our aims of the coming year is to improve the way we deliver our meetings by preparing guidelines for meeting organisers to ensure that EDI is embedded into the way in which we organise these. Finally, we are looking to the future and one of the long term aims of the EDI subcommittee is to attract a diverse range of members to serve on the BMSS committee to ensure that representation is truly reflective of the diversity within the society.
All the best, The EDI sub-committee.
Rian Griffiths rian.griffiths@nottingham.ac.uk
Lindsay Harding l.p.harding@hud.ac.uk
Rhodri Owen r.n.owen@swansea.ac.uk
in January to share their ‘pride in British mass spectrometry’. We hope you will join us in Sheffield next year to make the LGBT+ meetup at BMSS41 bigger and better.
Rhodri N. Owen, Swansea University.
BMSS Lecturer: Professor Jane Thomas-Oates
Our current BMSS Lecturer talks about the three presentations she is presenting in her role.
a) The one most people seem to want, which describes some of our archaeological collaborations, putting state-of-the-art biological mass spectrometry to work to address challenging questions in archaeology. This tends to be good for a general audience because I cover a range of different compound classes, and so it has broad appeal, and of course folks tend to enjoy the archaeological aspects too, as do I!
b) The second talk is about some of the work my group has been doing developing and applying
methods for glycoprotein glycan analyses, and their application to questions in cell and tissue biology. We work to miniaturise the amount of cell or tissue samples used and to maximise the information we can get mass spectrometrically, for example about localisation of particular structures. We are particularly interested in methods that allow us to handle enough samples in parallel to work with replicates and to compare, for example, different conditions, and to thus generate data with statistical relevance.
C) The final talk is about metabolomics, largely in the plant area, where we are working on plant stress responses. We are interested
in developing focussed methods for handling and analysing our samples, and have worked collaboratively in some interesting areas.
There is also the option of splicing two subject areas into a hybrid talk, so for example, I have in the last couple of years given a glycobiology - plant metabolomics hybrid talk, since the particular department had people with the two interests. Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities
This mailing list was originally set up to facilitate inter-group communication in mass spectrometry.
More information about the BMSS’ JISCmail service can be found on our website at www.bmss.org.uk/ membership/jiscmail/
Anyone can join at www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ webadmin?A0=BMSS-NEWS and click on the subscribe button. Enter your name and email address, ensuring that you have selected BMSS-NEWS (unlisted).
JiscMail is a non-profit LISTSERV mailing list based in Newcastle and they spend a lot of effort pruning emails to minimise spam.
TRAVEL GRANT REPORTS
The authors of these reports all wish to express their thanks to the BMSS for the award of a travel grant to allow them to attend these conferences.
BMSS Annual Meeting
3th - 5th September 2019, Manchester
Travel Grant Recipient:
Hugh Jones
University of Warwick
Supervisors:
Mark P. Barrow
KairosMS: A new method for processing hyphenated ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry data
There has been continued interest in coupling ultra-high high resolution mass spectrometers with separation methods, such as chromatography, however there are several challenges such as having a fast enough duty cycle to keep up with the chromatographic elution, as well as the data handling of the resulting data sets. Modern advancements to instrumentation such as the solariX 2XR and Orbitraps have enabled fast duty cycles while maintaining a high mass resolution; however advancements in data processing have not been as forthcoming, with the bottleneck in hyphenation experiments remaining as the data processing.
The current workflow for hyphenated ultra high resolution data analysis is slow and laborious; the total ion chromatogram (TIC) is sliced into several time segments, producing a mass spectrum for each, assigning molecular compositions for each spectrum, before visualisation of the results. The use of segmentation also incurs a loss in time resolution. Previous software for processing hyphenated data has not been designed for the unique characteristics of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) and Orbitrap mass spectrometers. The majority of previous softwares have incorporated binning based algorithms, in which every m/z within a sufficiently sized bin is
assigned to the same molecular composition. Binning algorithms are not usually set up to cope with the variations in m/z due to spacecharge effects, or the data density of complex samples, and therefore multiple species can be binned together leading to convolution of multiple molecular compositions. KairosMS was written using the R language and developed as a solution that both simplifies and accelerates the analysis of hyphenated data without any loss in the time resolution. KairosMS accepts data exported from instrument vendor software (such as DataAnalysis for Bruker instruments), the data is then processed, and optionally recalibrated, a single mass list is then exported for compositional assignment in third-party software.
The molecular assignments are imported back into KairosMS, where they are merged with the processed data. The processing is quick, in the order of 1 to 5 minutes, and lightweight, allowing it to be run on a laptop computer, this enables rapid analysis of the hyphenated data. In order to then help the user analyse their data, KairosMS incorporates various different interactive analysis and visualisation tools, from traditional petroleomics type visualisations such as ; double bond equivalent (DBE) versus carbon number plots, van Krevelen diagrams, heteroatomic class distributions, to extracted ion chromatograms (EICs) for individual molecular formulae, heteroatomic classes and homologous series. The software has been built around the ability to compare different samples, to facilitate analysis, and additionally all figures are downloadable as well
as the underlying plot data.
To date KairosMS has been tested with several different combinations of sample and separation; liquid chromatography (LC) of dissolved organic matter (DOM) using Orbitrap MS and trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) of crude oil, and gas chromatography (GC) of oil sands process waters (OSPW) and of bio oils with FTICR MS. The workflow is robust and therefore should be able to be applied to any ultra-high resolution hyphenated system.
By reducing the time that researchers have to spend processing data, hyphenation can become a more routine experiment to perform, furthering the understanding of complex mixtures such as such as crude oil, bio oils and environmental samples through the assessment and tracking of their isomeric complexity.
This was my first time attending the BMSS annual conference, and I found it to be a great experience. I found the sessions stimulating, especially the session on MS in Sport drug testing, an area of mass spectrometry that I knew very little about. Learning about the unique challenges and applications in this area of mass spectrometry highlighted why this type of conference can be so interesting and useful to a PhD student and especially a first year PhD student. The conference dinner was also a great experience and I look forward to next year’s one!
4th International Mass Spectrometry School
15th - 20th September 2019, Barcelona, Spain
Travel Grant Recipient: Carla
Harkin
Ulster University
Supervisors:
Dr Diego Cobice, Prof Tara Moore, Dr Simon Brockbank
This research forms a collaborative project within the Randox-Ulster University Industrial PhD Academy. The overarching aim of this research is to investigate the presence of precursors and products relating to oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy to inform discovery and validation of new biomarkers, which may aid in predicting progression of nephropathy in patients with diabetes.
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus characterised
by a variety of structural and molecular changes to the kidney. It is currently the leading global cause of end stage renal disease (ESRD) in the UK. Reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and increased urinary albumin levels are indicators of kidney damage and DN progression in diabetic patients. Recent research has highlighted limitations of current diabetic nephropathy diagnosis methods and the need for alternative biomarkers. Microalbuminuria (slightly elevated albumin levels) can regress spontaneously and not all patients with this presentation progress to develop DN. In addition, patients without elevated levels of urinary albumin (normo-albuminuria) can still develop DN. The measurement of eGFR can indicate reduced kidney function, but at this stage, kidney damage has already occurred.
Mass Spectrometric platforms, such as LC-MS with chemical derivatisation for small molecule analysis and Imaging Mass Spectrometry will be applied to detect localise reactive molecules. In addition, peptide identification will be determined using LC/MS Orbitrap and Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Tandem Time-of-Flight (MALDI/TOF/TOF) platforms.
Sitges, Barcelona a charming old town was easily reached from the airport.
Lectures were inclusive of all levels, beginning with basic concepts and building as the week progressed. All speakers were fully open and willing to dispense advice to anyone who asked for it. Personal highlights include talks by Prof. R. Graham Cooks (Aston Laboratory, Perdue
University) on ambient imaging mass spectrometry, Prof. Ron Heeren, (University of Maastricht) on MALDI imaging techniques and Prof. Facundo M. Fernandez, (Georgia Institute of Technology) on ion mobility.
Every aspect of the event was thoughtfully planned and everyone involved was friendly and approachable. I consider myself very lucky to have been a part of it.
Dedicated Funding to promote Inclusivity: The new BMSS Grants for Carers
The BMSS is committed to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in BMSS activities and to promoting Mass Spectrometry. As part of this commitment we are introducing a new funding stream to support attendance at scientific meetings, including but not limited to BMSS meetings, for our members with caring commitments. This has been highlighted as a key barrier to retention for many academic scientists (particularly women) with parenting or caring commitments by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Therefore, the BMSS aims to address some of the challenges parents and those
with other caring responsibilities face when trying to attend scientific meetings and/or training opportunities.
This is one of the initiatives driven by our recently formed EDI sub-committee to improve how our members experience BMSS activities and to drive changes that will provide an equal and inclusive environment for all of our members. The new Grants for Carers fund will provide funding of typically ~£100 to cover the costs of additional care costs incurred as a result of attending a scientific meeting, conference or workshop that promotes mass
spectrometry, providing a route to support attendance for members with parenting and/or caring responsibilities. Applications will be assessed on an individual basis, however, examples of the types of expenses this would fund include:
i. extra home help or nursing care or additional medical/respite care for a dependant whilst the applicant is not present.
ii. travel expenses to allow a relative to accompany the applicant to a meeting they are attending in order to care for dependants. iii. to cover the costs of extended hours with a care worker/ childminder/play scheme to allow
the applicant to return home later than normal.
The Grants for Carers fund will launch in 2020 and will receive applications three times per year, in line with the current deadlines for our John Beynon Travel and Conference funding application deadlines. These funds will be available to all members, irrespective of career stage, who demonstrate that their professional development as a mass spectrometrist will benefit through attendance at meetings/ conferences/workshops supported by this funding.
Bordoli Prize
Francesca Bellingeri, University of Warwick.
Elucidation of metal binding regions of α-synuclein, the Parkinson’s disease protein using top-down FTICR mass spectrometry.
Barber Prize BMSS Medal Delegates Choice (Poster)
Evita Hartmane, University of Reading. A modified AP-MALDI source for online studies of microdroplet/gas phase chemistry by mass spectrometry.
Rachelle Black, University of Manchester. Shedding a Light on the Structural Changes of Proteins Using Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry and Photoactivation.
Professor Alison Ashcroft University of Leeds.
Committee Member Spotlight Committee Member Spotlight
I was elected to the committee in August 2019 and took up my role in October. I am excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the work of the BMSS and am greatly looking forward to playing an active role.
I studied Chemistry with Environmental Science at the University of Kent at Canterbury (as it was then) from 1990 to 1993. I went on to study for an MRes in thermal analysis which I self-funded through a non-deferable loan, so after a year I found myself in Cardiff doing temping jobs in financial administration. After a brief spell in Birmingham I moved to Bristol and was lucky enough to get a job as a Research Technician in the School of Chemistry, working in the mass spec and NMR services. I’d never used either technique before so it was a steep learning curve! However, I had excellent support from Drs. Ken MacNeil and Martin Murray, some of the most knowledgeable and helpful people I’ve ever worked for. I mostly used a VG Autospec, which was tuned using an oscilloscope and had an exciting array of vacuum isolation levers, back in the good old days before mass specs. were just impenetrable blue boxes!
Eventually the desire to do a PhD overtook me and in 2000 I moved to the University of Huddersfield as a Research Assistant, running the mass spec. service while doing a part-time PhD in analysis of macromolecules. I graduated in 2005, and after a couple of years of post-doc at Huddersfield was appointed as a Lecturer in Analytical Science in 2007, progressing to Reader in 2018. I teach NMR, mass spectrometry and chromatography to second and final year students on our Chemistry, Forensic Science and Pharmaceutical Chemistry courses.
My early research focussed on analysis of metallosupramolecular complexes using electrospray MS, and I have collaborated with a number of eminent scientists in the field. More recently I’ve returned to my thermal analysis past and work with colleagues Dr Gareth Parkes and Dr Gage Ashton developing novel instruments combining thermal analysis with ambient ionisation MS (specifically DART).
I am passionate about Inclusion and Diversity, and have roles in this area both within the University and externally. I was a member of the RSC Inclusion and Diversity Committee from 201619 and am now a member of the newly-formed BMSS EDI sub-committee.
Family time is really important to me and I enjoy various activities with my fiancé Roger and stepsons Toby and Johnny, especially our regular baking sessions. Due to all the cake, I need to keep fit and so I do parkrun, kickboxing and Pilates. Music is another big interest, I play the piano and bass guitar and enjoy seeing live bands.
Lindsay Harding
