Location: Steinbeck Foyer

	Mark Kushnir, PhD ARUP Institute for Clinical & Experimental Pathology Mark Kushnir is Scientific Director, Mass Spectrometry R&D at ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine. Mark received PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden); his main areas of interest include development, application and clinical evaluation of novel mass spectrometry based clinical diagnostic methods for small molecule, protein and peptide biomarkers. He is author/coauthor of over 100 scientific peer reviewed publications.
	Hsuan-Chieh (Joyce) Liao, PhD, NRCC, DABCC University of Washington Dr. Joyce Liao has more than ten years of clinical and management experience in laboratory medicine. She was a medical laboratory scientist in the newborn screening lab and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Clinical Medicine. She completed postdoctoral fellowship training in Clinical Chemistry at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. She is a board-certified Clinical Chemist and now served as an Associate Director at Harborview Medical Center, focusing on toxicology and mass spectrometry testing. She continues to focus on the translation of the analytical power of mass spectrometry to real clinical applications. Her interests include toxicology, mass spectrometry, and laboratory utilization.
	Liang Li, PhD Metabolomics Innovation Centre of Canada & University of Alberta Dr. Li obtained his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University, China, in 1983, and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, in 1989, under the direction of Professor David M. Lubman. After graduation, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta in July 1989. He was an Assistant Professor from 1989 to 1994 and an Associate Professor from 1994 to 1999. He has been a Full Professor since July 1999. He has also been an Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, since January 2008. He holds a Visiting Professorship at Zhejiang University supported by K. P. Chao’s Hi-Tech Foundation for Scholars and Scientists since 2006. He is a co-PI of The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC) mainly supported by Genome Canada. He was a co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites that has been widely used by the metabolomics community for unknown metabolite identification based on spectral matches. Dr. Li was a visiting scientist at Hewlett Packard Research Lab (now Agilent), Palo Alto, CA (on sabbatical leave) from July 1998 to June 1999. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Lab from February 2000 to December 2005. He served as Chair, Analytical Chemistry Division of Chemistry Department from July 2007 to June 2019. He serves as a Co-Director of TMIC since July 2019. He is a founder of Nova Medical Testing, Inc., a university spin-off company focusing on developing mass spectrometry based analytical solutions for medical and health diagnostic applications, including targeted diagnostic-panel analysis and global biomarker analysis. Dr. Li is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019) (watch this video on Youtube). He is a Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry (Tier 1, 2005-2012; renewed for 2012-2019). He has won several awards including McBryde Medal (2001) from the Canadian Society for Chemistry, Faculty of Science Outstanding Research Award (2002), McCalla Professorship (2002-2003), and Killam Annual Professorship (2004-2005) from the University of Alberta. He received the Young Explorers Prize from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR), which was given to Canada’s top twenty researchers aged forty or under in science and engineering (2002) as chosen by a panel of international judges. He was the recipient of the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry from the Royal Society of Canada (2003). He received The F.P. Lossing Award from the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry in 2006, The Maxxam Award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry in 2009 and Gerhard Herzberg Award from the Canadian Society for Analytical Sciences and Spectroscopy in 2010. He was one of the seven researchers selected as Brightest Minds 2016 by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada since 2001. Dr. Li has published more than 300 research papers mainly in the area of analytical mass spectrometry. He has given many invited talks including Hong Kong Polytechic University Distinguished Lecture in 2011, Distinguished Lectureship on Cerebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty of Science in 2011, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Distinguished Scientist Lecture at the University of Montreal in 2013. Dr. Li is currently an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry with an Impact Factor of 6.558 in 2020 (2005-present). He is a member of the editorial advisory boards for Current Analytical Chemistry (2004-present), Journal of Advanced Research (Elsevier) (2014-), Biophysics Reports (Springer) (2015-), and Chemical Data Collections (Elsevier) (2015-). Dr. Li was a member of the editorial advisory boards for Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (2001-2006), Canadian Journal of Chemistry (2004-2006), Clinical Proteomics (2011-2016), and Analytical Chemistry Insights (2006-2018). He was a member of Analytical Chemistry’s A-Page Advisory Panel (2006-2008).
	Adam McShane, PhD Cleveland Clinic

1. Is There a Better Way to Plan and Perform Experiments? Introduction to Experimental Design
Mark Kushnir

Experimental design (DOE) is a technique that allows to be more efficient in planning, conducting and interpreting results of experiments. In Analytical Chemistry, DOE can be used during method development and optimization, troubleshooting performance and method evaluation. The DOE technique is also very helpful for identifying critical parameters, which have the most significant effect on performance of the methods, products, processes, or systems. The participants will learn why DOE is better than performing experiments by changing one variable at a time, learn about cause-and-effect relationships and interactions between factors. The participants will be introduced to several types of DOE, will learn some of the principles and guidelines for planning experiments.

2. Do Identical Instruments Produce Comparable Patient Results? A Stumbling Block of Harmonizing LC-MS/MS Assays in Clinical Laboratories
Joyce Liao

Clinical mass spectrometry laboratories usually validate individual assays on more than one instrument for continuous operation. Instrument comparison is a requirement of the College of American Pathologists and should be monitored at least twice a year to ensure comparability of results. Although the same style of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry system is preferred to minimize the variations between instruments, labs will inevitably encounter bias between two or more identical LC-MS/MS systems. Even in the absence of bias, the same instrument model with two different serial numbers may require different instrument settings to obtain similar sensitivity and specificity. In this roundtable session, we will review several comparison data sets from the same extractions injected and analyzed on two LC-MS/MS systems of the same make and model. We will discuss the potential factors, including mass spectrometer hardware (probe type and cleanness) and software settings (gradients, transitions, cone voltages, and collision energies) that could bias patient results and how to establish quality assurance policies to ensure adequate data review and accurate resulting. Examples of challenges we have faced and approaches we have found useful will be presented as a starting point for discussion.

3. Challenges and Possible Solutions on Direct Metabolome Profiling for Clinical Applications
Liang Li

Metabolomics is mainly used for disease biomarker discovery with an objective of translating newly discovered metabolite biomarkers into clinical applications. On the other hand, direct metabolome profiling of human biofluids may be used for monitoring health status of individuals on a population scale. However, there are a number of challenges in realizing this goal. This roundtable discussion will focus on exchanging views on several key areas of technical development that are needed to bring large-scale metabolome profiling to clinical settings. These include sample type, sample handling, analytical platforms, data processing, clinical metabolome informatics, cost and scale, etc.

4. Thyroid Function Testing Interference and How Mass Spectrometry Can Help: Interactive Case Studies
Adam McShane

Thyroid disease affects approximately 20 million Americans, and can lead to a multitude of symptoms. These are often grouped into 2 categories: hyperthyroidism (e.g., anxiety, weight loss, and sleep loss) and hypothyroidism (e.g. fatigue, weight gain, and forgetfulness). Clinicians rely heavily on biochemical assessment of the thyroid for accurate diagnosis to ensure prompt treatment. Routine thyroid function tests utilize immunoassays for their availability, speed, and automation. However, this testing suffers from a variety of interferences which can delay diagnosis or worse lead to miss diagnosis. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is a much more specific platform than immunoassays that can be utilized in the investigation of potential inferences. This session will utilize real-life, interactive cases to exemplify common thyroid function testing interferences, investigatory considerations, and how LC-MS can be utilized.

Location: Exhibit Hall - Serra

Location: Club Room