Peggi Angel is tenured Associate Professor at Medical University of South Carolina and Co-Associate Director of Mass Spectrometry Imaging. Dr. Angel’s work focuses on the contribution of spatial chemical biology to the external, endogenous environmental in disparities of disease risk, progression, and therapeutic resistance. She has developed multiple mass spectrometry imaging approaches to spatial biology all of which are designed for use on clinically archived human specimens of tissues, cells and fluids, and are developed working with clinicians. Notably, she is the inventor of a spatial method targeting the collagen proteome in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues that integrates collagen proteomic maps with spatial transcriptomics and microscopy studies. Dr. Angel has over 14 years cumulative experience in 5 biotech startups including Glycopath, Inc., a company that leveraged glycosylation patterns as a prognostic or diagnostic tool; she currently serves on the board of N-Zyme Scientifics, a company that produces enzymes for targeted mass spectrometry imaging. Dr. Angel is committed to creating a collaborative mass spectrometry imaging community and serves as Past President for the Americas Region of the International Mass Spectrometry Imaging Society, as a Trustee for the International Mass Spectrometry Imaging Society, and as Secretary on the USHUPO Board of Directors. Dr. Angel is devoted to coaching and mentoring, particularly for females and minorities, serving on multiple committees to advise and mentor young scientists in entrepreneurship within multidisciplinary teams
Emma Guiberson, PhD
Middlebury College
Emma completed her B.S. in Chemistry and Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, conducting research in organic chemistry and chemistry education research, before pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. As a graduate student in the labs of Dr. Richard Caprioli and Dr. Jeff Spraggins, her research focused primarily on the application of imaging mass spectrometry to the gastrointestinal tract (Guiberson, et. al. JASMS 2022) and utilizing targeted small molecule analysis to better study bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract during Clostridioides difficile infection (Wexler and Guiberson, et. al. Cell Reports 2021). Additionally, she worked on utilizing spatial proteomics to understand abscess formation during Staphylococcus aureus infections (Guiberson and Weiss, et. al. ACS Infectious Diseases 2020). This work led to an interest in the gut microbiome and the metabolites produced by microbes in the gastrointestinal tract. After defending her PhD in August of 2022, Emma then joined the lab of Dr. Justin Sonnenburg at Stanford University to study microbial-derived metabolites. Her current work in the Sonnenburg lab focuses on both untargeted metabolomics using a library of microbiome-derived metabolites (Han, Guiberson, Sonnenburg, Protocol Exchange, 2022), as well as necessary targeted methods for quantitative analyses of metabolites of interest that accumulate as uremic toxins during kidney disease. Emma has since started her independent career at Middlebury College investigating the metabolome of the oral microbiome during oral disease.
Emily Harari, BS
Artyc PBC
Based on a foundation of early wetlab experience, I've worked in both large pharma and small biotech. My experience is in study operations and I'm currently focused on solving the problem of reliable specimen handling in decentralized trials and point-of-care testing. I'm interested in reducing pre-analytical errors and maximizing sample quality using reliable temperature control and other safe-handling practices of specimens in transit to the lab.
Shelley Hossenlopp, MS
Poca International LLC
Executive with 37 years of global and domestic laboratory and medical device commercialization: sales, distribution, marketing, business development, funding, product management, clinical trials, regulatory, manufacturing and Intellectual Property strategy planning. Inventor with two patents as co-inventor with US Army pertain to laboratory consumable for biosecurity for samples. Advanced experience working with the Department of Defense (DoD) and other US and foreign government, Ministries of Health (MOH) and non-government agencies (NGO's) and Fortune 100, 500 firms.
Board level experience with commercial start-ups, universities and nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations.
Executive management level experience working with all business climates: start-ups, mid-level, Fortune 100 & 500 Corporations, and non-profit 501(c)3's to include fund-raising and M & A activities
Areas of Expertise in: sales, marketing, distribution, commercialization strategy, business development, acquisition, funding, intellectual property analysis, clinical affairs, research and product development and manufacturing: Conduct market analysis, develop sales forecasts, budgets, marketing, & distribution strategies, and commercialization plans. SG&A, P&L responsibilities, Manage clinical affairs and trials. IRB, IRC, and FDA PMA, De Novo, 510(k) experience, QSR and cGMP knowledge.
Enaksha Wickremsinhe, PhD
Gates Medical Research Institute
Enaksha has over 20 years of experience in Pharma R&D as a bioanalytical expert combined with ADME/DMPK project leadership.
He is currently a Bioassay Development Lead at the Gates Medical Research Institute. Prior to that he served as a Research Advisor at Eli Lilly and Company where he was responsible for the development, validation, and execution of quantitative LC-MS/MS assays supporting the entire small molecule portfolio, spanning from discovery to registration. He is also an expert on novel blood sampling technologies and supporting Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs). Enaksha has numerous publications demonstrating the adoption of patient centric minimally invasive blood sampling for PK as well as safety panels supporting global trials including pediatric. He is the co-chair of the AAPS Microsampling and Patient Centric Sampling discussion group. Enaksha represented PhRMA as a member of the ICH M10 Expert Working Group. He received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University and his undergraduate from the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka).
Dajana Vuckovic, PhD
Concordia University
Dr. Dajana Vuckovic is Professor and Concordia University Research Chair in Clinical Metabolomics and Biomarkers and the Director of Centre for the Biological Applications of Mass Spectrometry at Concordia University. Her research program focuses on the development of novel mass spectrometry and microextraction methods to accurately measure challenging low-abundance and unstable metabolites and improve metabolite coverage and data quality in clinical metabolomics and lipidomics. Dr. Vuckovic is the recipient of the 2023 Fred Beamish Award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry and the 2024 Metabolomics Society medal. She serves on the editorial boards of Bioanalysis and Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry and currently co-leads the Best Practices Working Group of Metabolomics Quality Assurance and Quality Control Consortium. She was elected as Secretary and member of the Board of Directors of Metabolomics Association of North America. She has co-organized numerous scientific symposia at leading national and international conferences and has co-chaired Metabolomics 2023 conference held in Niagara Falls, Canada.
Russell Grant, PhD
Labcorp
Dr. Grant earned a first-class honors degree in Industrial Chemistry from Cardiff University and a PhD in Chromatographic and Mass Spectrometric technologies from the University of Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. He continued his scientific training in various industrial settings, which have included senior scientist at GSK, Principal scientist at Cohesive Technologies, Technical director at Eli Lilly, and Director of Mass Spectrometry at Esoterix Endocrinology. Dr Grant is currently the Vice President of Research and Development and co-discipline director for Mass spectrometry at Labcorp. Dr Grant has pioneered the use of direct injection technologies, chromatographic systems multiplexing, microsampling, utility of automation, and other new analytical platforms in direct patient care. His research goals are focused upon improvements in speed, sensitivity, and quality of liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) analytical systems and assays. Dr Grant has been awarded 100 patents and received both the MSACL Distinguished contribution award and ASMS AL Yergey “Unsung Hero” Award in 2024 for his contributions to Clinical Diagnostics using Mass Spectrometry.
Stacy Beal, MD
LetsGetChecked and University of Florida
Stacy G. Beal, MD is the Laboratory Director for LetsGetChecked, a high volume laboratory in Monrovia, CA and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida. She is board certified in Clinical Pathology, Medical Microbiology, and Clinical Informatics by the American Board of Pathology. Her interests include diagnostic testing, laboratory stewardship, and regulatory aspects of laboratory testing. She is an expert in laboratory quality and home collection of laboratory specimen. She served on the College of American Pathologists Quality Practices Committee and has extensive teaching experience. Dr. Beal currently resides in Gainesville, Florida. While not working, she is likely to be found dancing to Disney songs with her two daughters, on a tandem bike ride with her husband, or listening to a podcast about cooking while going for a long walk.
Table TBA: Multi-omics by the MS Imaging Platform : What's new and what's needed?
Peggi Angel
Table TBA: Undergraduate Research in Mass Spectrometry: How to make our labs more undergraduate friendly.
Emma Guiberson
More and more industries are looking for graduates trained in mass spectrometry, even at the bachelors level. Training our undergraduate population in these technologies is important now more than ever, yet requires a very different approach than graduate students. How do we best prepare our undergraduates for both industry and academic experiences using MS? What systems do we need in place within our labs to both support these students, and ensure consistency in data collection, analysis, and reporting? How do we keep these systems in place with the high rates of turnover in undergraduate researchers compared to graduate students? This brainstorming and networking roundtable will address these questions and share positive and negative experiences that can help inform groups including undergraduates moving forward.
Table TBA: Patient centric remote sampling for clinical diagnostics – How do we integrate these samples with existing (non-MS) laboratory workflows?
Emily Harari, Shelley Hossenlopp, Enaksha Wickremsinhe, Dajana Vuckovic, Russell Grant
Numerous technologies are now commercially available that facilitate the collection of human blood samples in locations away from the clinical setting. This approach is termed patient centric sampling, or microsampling and can involve the collection of samples from a finger stick, or from elsewhere on the body. The samples can be dried, or liquid and are often a smaller volume than those obtained by traditional phlebotomy.
The use of these approaches potentially enables samples to be collected from currently underserved communities (pediatric, elderly, remote areas, etc). Furthermore, the approach may enable more regular sampling of individuals to be performed and facilitates choice for the patient about how and where samples will be collected. These technologies also have the potential to overcome the discomfort, pain and fear that is encountered by many when collecting samples by traditional phlebotomy. However, the format of samples collected this way is often different to those routinely analyzed in the clinical laboratory, i.e. small volume, whole blood, dried blood, particularly for non LC/MS based assays. Participants of this workshop will take part in a facilitated discussion on what the challenges are in the clinical laboratory to the adoption of these technologies and will then focus on how they might be overcome
and what future activities might be required to enable this.
This discussion will focus on the importance and impact of women in leadership roles within the laboratory. Despite the increasing representation of women in healthcare, leadership positions remain disproportionately occupied by men. This discussion aims to highlight the barriers women face in advancing to leadership roles, such as gender bias, lack of mentorship, and work-life balance challenges. Additionally, we will discuss the critical value women bring to laboratory leadership, including diverse perspectives, empathy, and innovative approaches to patient care and organizational management. We will examine strategies for fostering gender equity in leadership, including mentorship programs, organizational support for work-life integration, and policies aimed at addressing unconscious bias. Furthermore, we will explore the role of male allies in advancing these efforts and the importance of creating inclusive environments that allow women to thrive in senior roles. Through this discussion, we will propose actionable insights and recommendations.
Table TBA: Ensuring Statistical Power in Biomarker Discovery in Assay Development
