9th Summer School “Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine”

This Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine (MSBM) Summer School aimed at teaching and discussing current best practices and knowledge in Mass Spectrometry  (MS) to  advanced  graduate  students,  post-docs  and  scientists  in  the  area  of biochemistry, biology, molecular biology, biotechnology and medicine. The program was packed with a mixture of cutting-edge research and emerging topics and it also included didactic lectures.

It was organized in Dubrovnick, Croatia. The scientific presentation included several topics such as Electrochemical and Microfluidic Aspects of Ionization Methods (Hubert Girault), Introduction to Glycomics (Jasna Peter-Katalinic), Top-down proteomics and infectious diseases (Julia Chamot-Rooke), Native Mass Spectrometry: History and How (Joseph Loo) and The Basics and Applications of Imaging Mass Spectrometry (Ron Heeren).

The following didactic lectures were presented:

    •  Introduction to biological molecules - structure/function review of: lipids, glycol-lipids, carbohydrates, peptides/proteins, DNA/RNA

    •  Fundamentals of mass spectra: base peak, resolution calculations, ppm calculations etc.

    •  Ionization fundamentals (MALDI and ESI)

    •  Mass analyzers: quads, traps, TOF, ICR, combos

    •  Separation strategies: LC, CE, HILIC, fractionation (e.g. SDS-PAGE and TLC)

    •  Fragmentation mechanisms: high and low energy CID, ECD/ETD, IRMPD

    •  Interpretation of peptide tandem mass spectra including basics of database search

    •  Quantitative analysis - relative and absolute

The course was attended by approx. 55 persons from different instritutions and countries over Europe. To promote the interactions between participants and lecturers/organizers, a poster session was organized and a series of exercises were given to the participants in order for us to solve them during the course.

Dr. Isabel Marcelino, microbiologist specialized in proteomics and recruited on the Epigenesis project participated in the MSBM summer school to know what is currently being done in the field of MS but most importantly to discuss with top scientists on this domains to deepen knowledge on some techniques, applications and evolution of those techniques in several domains. She also presented a poster "Developing new methods for PTM mapping of Ehrlichi ruminantium proteins".

More information on this summer school, access presentations: visit the MSBM website