Tackling Reproducibility Issues in Mass Spectrometry-based Biomarker Discovery Event Date: December 5, 2007 12:00 Noon Eastern Standard Time; 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time Brought to you by the Science/AAAS Business Office Best viewed on Internet Explorer 6 or better.   Real Player   Real Media Video (56k/150k) For best results when using Real Media, first upgrade to RealPlayer v11.   Windows Media Player   Windows Media Video (56k/150k)     Mass spectrometry is an extremely powerful and sensitive technology that can detect very small changes in expression levels. Some of these changes may stem from the biological differences related to a disease or treatment of interest. Others, however, may reflect the heterogeneity of patients across multiple sites, the inherent biological complexity and diversity of different sample types, and even small differences in sample collection, processing, handling, and analysis techniques used by multiple operators across multiple locations. As a consequence, data may be tainted by site-, study-, population-, or sample-specific anomalies and, therefore, not be sufficiently robust for biomarker discovery. Join our panel of experts in a live, audience-driven Q&A as they discuss how to overcome these reproducibility issues to generate less biased and more reliable results. Questions for the panel can be submitted live through your viewing console.   Speakers: Martin Latterich, Ph.D. Faculty of Pharmacy University of Montreal Montreal, Canada Dr. Martin Latterich received his Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, and performed his postdoctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley with Professor Randy Schekman. Dr. Latterich has over 14 years of experience in pharmacogenomics, proteomics, and the biochemistry of proteins and small molecules. He currently holds a faculty position jointly at the Montreal Heart Institute and the University of Montreal, Faculty of Pharmacy. He has previously served on the faculty of McGill University in Montreal as a Tier I Canada Research Chair and the Salk Institute in San Diego, and has made significant contributions to the field of integrative proteomics and pharmacogenomics through the use of innovative mass spectrometry and biochemical techniques. Dr. Latterich has also held senior management and executive positions at Diversa Corporation, Illumina, Inc., and Proteotype. He has been published in major peer-reviewed scientific journals, and is named on more than 10 patent applications. His grant-funded work has been recognized by the 1998 Pew Scholar Award and the 1997 Basil O’Conner Starter Scholar award. He serves as an industry consultant and sits on a number of advisory boards as well as being editor-in-chief of the journal Proteome Science. His current research and teaching focuses on understanding the molecular basis of individualized drug responses, an area essential for the development of personalized medicine treatments. Timothy D. Veenstra, Ph.D., SAIC-Frederick, Inc. National Cancer Institute at Frederick Frederick, MD Timothy D. Veenstra is Director of the Laboratory of Proteomics and Analytical Technologies (LPAT), SAIC-Frederick Inc. at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick, MD. Dr. Veenstra holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from the University of Windsor, Canada and completed his post-doctoral training in molecular and cellular biology at the Mayo Clinic/Foundation. Dr. Veenstra joined NCI-Frederick in the fall of 2001 to implement a state-of-the-art mass spectrometry center that focuses on the discovery of signaling pathways and networks that are activated within cells as a response to external perturbations. His laboratory is also keenly interested in utilizing high-throughput proteomic approaches for the discovery of biomarkers for diseases such as cancer and exploring the use of proteomic and metabolomic technology for the routine interrogation of clinical samples. Toni Whistler, Ph.D., Chronic Viral Diseases Branch Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA Dr. Whistler is a Senior Service Fellow in the Chronic Viral Diseases Branch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She received a PhD in Virology from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School in South Africa in 1990. Directly after this she took up a position as a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow in the Influenza Branch and then the Measles Virus Section of the Respiratory and Enteric Virus Branch at CDC. In 1994, she returned to South Africa as the Assistant Director and Head of the Department of Molecular Biology at the National Institute for Virology in Johannesburg, where she was involved in molecular epidemiological studies on the transmission of measles virus. In 1996 Dr Whistler took up a Staff Scientist position with the Pall Corporation in Port Washington, NY, and worked with scientists at CDC on the development and validation of filters for removal of small virus particles from blood products. In 1998 she joined the Infectious Diseases Pathology Activity molecular biology section, and then in 2002 the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research group, CVDB. In this program Dr Whistler is the lead scientist on several gene expression and proteomic studies, and has extensive experience in setting up mass spectrometry analysis, particularly SELDI-TOF. She has a strong publication record including two book chapters and recent papers on the optimization of SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry experiments. Dr Whistler has received a number of awards for her research, notably the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2000.   Moderator: Sean Sanders, Ph.D., Commercial Editor, Science/AAAS Sean Sanders did his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his Ph.D. under Sir Dillwyn Williams at the University of Cambridge, UK, supported by the Wellcome Trust. Following postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and Georgetown University, Dr. Sanders joined TranXenoGen, a startup biotechnology company in Massachusetts working on avian transgenics. Pursuing his parallel passion for writing and editing, Dr. Sanders joined BioTechniques as an editor in 2004 before recently taking the position of Commercial Editor at Science/AAAS.   ___________________________________________________________________________________________________   Test Your System   Help   Download Real Player   Download Windows Media Player