The Early Career Network is meant to include not only scientists who are at the start of their career, but also mentors and hiring managers who are willing to share their experience and
serve as a resource for the next-generation of scientists. There are no age limits or requirements to participate. Public listing in this directory is optional as a member.
Niloofar Abolhasani Khaje
The University of Mississippi
1e Interests: Proteomics, Protein Structure, LC-MS/MS Method Development, HRPF-MS
Niloofar Abolhasani Khaje is a PhD candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences with an emphasis in Pharmacology from the University of Mississippi under Prof. Joshua Sharp’s supervision. She has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She is passionate about developing new mass spectrometry-based methods for studying the structure-function relationships of biomolecules. She has developed novel methods for data collection of Hydroxyl Radical Protein Footprinting (HRPF) via Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins (FPOP) that allow for more efficient collection and analysis of the resulting data. She accomplished this by developing an LC-MS/MS method that allows coelution of isomeric oxidized peptides, which don’t coelute under standard Reverse Phase (RP) LC-MS/MS methods, while separating different peptides. She also demonstrated that the coeluted isomeric peptides could be accurately quantitated using data-dependent acquisition methods instead of the time consuming data-independent methods that have to be used with RP methods. In collaboration with other members of the Sharp lab and labs across the country, Niloofar is developing methods to transform HRPF-FPOP MS into a structural technique. This requires adapting current methods in computational modeling to use HRPF-FPOP data to allow for structure determination of biomolecules that would be difficult using the standard X-ray crystallography, NMR, and cryo-EM methods.
Bill Clinton Aglomasa, Mphil Pharmaceutical microbioligy (2nd year), BSc. Biomedical Science
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research
1e Interests: Bioinformatics, Programming, Drug discovery, Immunology and Molecular biology
Am Mphil student reading Pharmaceutical microbiology. I find bacteria interesting and always looking at how mutations in bacteria can be countered by drugs, particularly crude medicine.
Am also open to challenges in different fields that seeks to leverage on my knowledge to improve the world
Behnaz Akbari
Boston University
1e Interests: Mass Spectrometry imaging, Mass Cytometry, Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, Nanomedicine, and regenerative medicine, Natural products, Therapy, and Clinical Diagnostics, Pathophysiology, Medicinal Chemistry, Neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Neurometabolic Research, Neurosurgery, Neuropathology, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Medical devices, Cancer Biology, Pharmaceutical Science (Drug Distribution and Drug Efficacy in Brain Tumors), Lab-On-A Chip, Cell & Developmental Biology, Molecular Pathology & Immunology, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Biophysical Chemistry, Bioanalytical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry
Behnaz Akbari (She, Her, Hers) is a Chemist who has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry from Iran. In 2019, she attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and obtained a second MSc in Chemistry in August 2021. To advance her career in medicine, she pursued her interests at Boston University School of Medicine. She studied "mass spectrometry imaging using cytometry by time-of-flight (TOF) strategies for brain tissues: A literature review", for her thesis, and then, graduated in August 2022 in the field of Bioimaging. Behnaz also has hands-on experience with cutting-edge mass spectrometry technology such as 15 Tesla Bruker SolariX FT-ICR mass spectrometers equipped with a dual ESI/MALDI source, FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry Imaging, MALDI-TOF/TOF, Knauer HPLC, Zeiss SEM-EDX, and ThorLabs' Optical Microscopy. Behnaz has special enthusiasm and interest in developing innovative biomedical research into MS and quantitative imaging techniques for human surgical decision-making.
Norah Alghamdi, Ph.D.
University of Louisville Hospital.
Pathology Department
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, toxicology, method development, LC-MS and GC-MS, ELISA
Norah Alghamdi is a clinical chemistry chief fellow at University of Louisville Hospital. She graduated from Cleveland State University with Ph.D. degree in Clinical Bio-Analytical Chemistry. Her clinical research interests focus on discovering biomarkers and developing rapid, accurate and cost-efficient diagnostic methods.
Ghaith Altawallbeh, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Intermountain Central Laboratory
1e Interests: Endocrinology, Serology, ELISA, LC/MSMS
Dr. Ghaith Altawallbeh is a board-certified Clinical Chemist for Primary Children’s Hospital and Intermountain Central Laboratory. He is also an adjunct Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah Medical Center.
Joseph Aslan, Ph.D.
Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health & Science University
1e Interests: Platelets, Cell Signaling, Cell Biology, Proteomics, Inflammation, Vascular Disease, Precision Medicine
Nadia Ayala-Lopez, MLS (ASCP), PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
1e Interests: Clinical chemistry and hematology.
I am currently a clinical chemistry fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. My clinical chemistry fellowship started at Vanderbilt University Medical Center before transitioning to JH. I received a B.S degree in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where I began research in laboratory medicine and toxicology. Before returning to school to earn my PhD, I served as a medical laboratory scientist at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington in Seattle, WA in the area of hematology and coagulation. My PhD is in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Michigan State University, where my research was on the adipose tissue's adrenergic control of vasoconstriction. I completed a research postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in Laboratory Medicine, where I studied RNA-methylation mechanisms of hematopoietic malignancies and completed collaborative research projects in clinical chemistry at the Yale New Haven Hospital on procalcitonin utility and establishing reference intervals.
Terry Bates, PhD
Bruker Daltonics
Terry Bates earned his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Gavin Sacks lab at Cornell University where his work focused on the development of novel extraction geometries and rapid throughput analysis for trace level (ng/kg-mg/kg) analytes in complex matrices using solid-phase mesh-enhanced sorption from headspace-- direct analysis in real time-- mass spectrometry (SPMESH-DART-MS). Terry has additional experience working with chromatography-based techniques (e.g., SPME-GC-MS, LCMS). Prior to his PhD program, Terry earned a BS in Molecular Biology from the University of Denver and his MS in Analytical Chemistry at Cornell University. Most recently, Terry began as an application specialist in the applied markets (BAMS) division at Bruker Corporation developing high throughput chromatography-free workflows for the forensic toxicology, food and beverage, and environmental monitoring industries.
Rebecca Bearden, BSc, MSc
Cleveland Clinic
1e Interests: Proteomics, Data Independent Acquisition, Bioinformatics, Tumor Markers, Precision Medicine, Metabolomics, Standardization
Rebecca holds a master’s degree in biomedical science is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Bioanalytical Chemistry PhD program at Cleveland State University. Her research aims include the use of mass spectrometry-based proteomics applied to colorectal cancer research, including early onset disease, and uncovering prognostic markers of relapse. She also has developed a quantitative LC-MS/MS method to quantify inflammatory and immune-related stool proteins with the goal to better improve adenoma detection rates compared with current screening tests.
Prior to her joining her doctoral program, Rebecca had conducted research at MAP Sciences in the UK as a part of her master’s thesis work where she used MALDI-TOF MS for the early the detection of preeclampsia by mass spectral fingerprinting and for maternal antenatal screening of other gestational disorders.
Rebecca also hold a concurrent position at the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, where she is responsible for untargeted metabolomics workflows and data analysis as well as targeted small molecule method development.
Rebecca’s academic training and research experience has provided her with a strong background in clinical biochemistry and informatics to investigate clinical problems using the latest technology in mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics.
Yan Yan Beer, Master of Science
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Education
2009-2012:
Training to Biological Laboratory Assistant at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany
2016-2018:
Master Study Molecular Life Sciences at the HAN University in Nijmegen, Netherlands
Professional Experience
2012-2020:
Biological Labortaory Assitant in the fields of Infection Biology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Immunology (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany)
2021 until now:
PhD Student at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, Germany
Karie Behm, PhD
CDC
1e Interests: Peptide biomarkers, LCMS, membrane proteins, structural biology, electron microscopy, Lyme disease, the intersection of science and the arts
Karie graduated with distinction with BS in Chemistry from the University of Kansas. She then completed her PhD in Chemistry at Arizona State University and the Biodesign Institute. There, she worked out a method to purify a recombinant Lyme-disease protein (BBA57) from the outer membrane of E. coli, to ensure proper folding and structure - and likely function. Using electron microscopy, she revealed that BBA57 is not a lipoprotein, as predicted, but forms a homomultimeric channel in the membrane. Prior to leaving, she made progress on preliminary cryoEM data for a higher-resolution structure. During her time at ASU, Karie choreographed/performed three different pieces to share her research with non-scientists. Karie then spent two years as an ORISE Fellow at the CDC and is currently working at the CDC on a novel immunoprecipitation-based LC-MS method to purify and detect 9 PTH peptides from human serum, in order to better understand the PTH regulation cycle in physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions.
Nicholas Bevins, MD PhD
Sapient Bioanalytics
1e Interests: Data Science
Mass Spectrometry
Molecular Diagnostics
BA Biochemistry at Columbia University
MD PhD University of California San Diego
5 years management consulting experience
Residency in clinical pathology at UCSD
Lauren Bishop
University of California, Davis
1e Interests: Lipidomics, Analytical Chemistry, Quantification
I am a fifth year PhD student working under the mentorship of Oliver Fiehn at UC Davis. My research interests primarily focus on improving the scope of absolute quantitation and quantitative accuracy within nontargeted lipidomic analyses.
Nazmin Bithi, PhD
University of Utah School of Medicine
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Bioinformatics, Biomarker study, Longevity, Glioblastoma, LC-MS/MS, Method development and validation
I am Nazmin Bithi. I am from Bangladesh and graduated from the University of Asia Pacific with a Bachelor’s in Pharmacy. Currently, I am a 4th year Ph.D. student in the ComACC-accredited doctoral clinical chemistry program at Cleveland State University (CSU), doing my doctoral research at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. My Ph.D. research is focused on the determination of endogenous hydrogen sulfide in different tissue and tissue-specific sulfhydration (post-translational modification of protein) along with their biological function under 50% dietary restriction in aged and glioblastoma model by using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. I am the chair of the student engagement committee of the Lerner graduate student association. I am looking forward to becoming a clinical chemistry fellow after my Ph.D. completion next year spring.
Mark Boggeri, BS Biochemistry- Post Grad Biophysics
PreOmics
1e Interests: Predictive Health and Wellness- Precision Medicine
LC/MS- PreAnalytics Separations expert with decades of developing custom products and solutions to serve the MS community. A true SME happy to advise- regardless if my current employer offers a solution or not :) I work as a "vendor" but really consider myself a Trusted Partner willing and able to provide nonbiased guidance...May sound cliche, But I enjoy helping!
Nefeli Boni-Kazantzidou, BSc,MSc
University of Liverpool
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry-based proteomics, Phospho-proteomics, Biological Mass spectrometry, Cancer Proteomics, Science communication
I am a North West Cancer Research-funded PhD student in the Centre for Proteome Research, Institute of Systems, Molecular & Integrative Biology of the University of Liverpool, supervised by Professors Claire and Patrick Eyers. I hold a BSc in Chemistry and an MSc in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Athens, Greece. My PhD research is focused on deciphering the cellular targets of tyrosine kinase inhibitors using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Outside of the lab, I have a passion for science communication projects, and have worked as a science writer and web manager/editor.
Jana Carpenter, B.S. Chemistry
University of Georgia
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry, metabolomics, ion mobility, lipidomics, liquid chromatography
Jana received her Bachelor's in Chemistry from Young Harris College in December of 2017. She then went on to work as a Pretreatment Chemist at the University of Georgia's Radiocarbon Lab at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS). She aided in method development during her time at CAIS from 2018 until the Fall of 2020 when she began her Ph.D. journey in the Hines lab under the direction and mentorship of Dr. Kelly M. Hines. Jana is now a fourth year Ph.D. candidate studying the small molecule interactions in biological systems. She utilizes mass spectrometry and ion mobility for high throughput applications in metabolomic and lipidomic studies.
Michael Celejewski
McMaster University
1e Interests: Clinical chemistry, Metabolomics, Mass spectrometry, Capillary electrophoresis, GC, LC, Camping
I am a Bachelor of Science student (in Integrated Science) at McMaster University. I focus on interdisciplinary research, as well as the investigation of chemical biology as it pertains to healthcare.
Ka Keung Chan, PhD
University of Rochester Medical Center
He completed his graduate work in the ComACC-accredited clinical/bioanalytical chemistry program at Cleveland State University and then pursued a clinical chemistry fellowship at the University of Washington. He is currently a board-certified clinical chemist at the University of Rochester.
Jessica Chapman, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Hafida Chekkouchi, Master
EMI/ UM5
Anil Kiran Chokkalla, PhD
University of Wisconsin–Madison
1e Interests: Biomarkers, Neuropathology, RNA Biology, Epigenetic and epitranscriptomic modifications, Cardiovascular Pathology, Mass spectrometry
I am a postdoctoral research associate investigating the neuropathological aspects of acute brain insults. I will be transitioning into a clinical chemistry fellowship in 2022.
Chia Yi Chou, Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
1e Interests: Glyco-proteomics, Instrumentation/methodology development, Biomedical application
Chia Yi Chou is a graduate student at Taipei Medical University of Taiwan in Dr I-Lin Tsai’s lab. She has been awarded Excellent Research Paper in Joint Academic Research symposium of Taipei Medical University. Chia Yi has posted posters in academic conferences and given oral presentations in Taiwan (TSMS annual conference, Joint Annual Conference of Biomedical Science). She conducted research in fields of pharmaceutical analysis, biomedical application, glyco-proteomics,and instrumentation/methodology development. Her work focuses specifically on SARS-CoV-2 related topics about glycosylation pattern of immunoglobulins.
Christopher Chouinard, PhD
Clemson University
1e Interests: Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry (IM-MS)
I received my PhD from University of Florida in 2016, where I developed ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) methods for steroids and vitamin D metabolites. I then worked as a post-doctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, building Structures for Loss Ion Manipulations (SLIM) ion mobility instrumentation for application in metabolomics and proteomics. In 2018, I began my independent career as an Assistant Professor at Florida Institute of Technology. I have since moved to Clemson University in August 2022. Work in my research group focuses on ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS)-based methods and technology, including structurally selective reactions for improved characterization of steroids and other controlled substances.
Zlata Clark, PhD
1e Interests: LC-MSMS
Method development
Method validation
B.S. in Analytical Chemistry, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Ph.D. in Bioanalytical Chemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Nearly three decades of HPLC, CE, CE-MS, and LC-MSMS method development and validation experience in academic, pharmaceutical, and clinical laboratory environments.
Peter Cohen, PhD Chemistry
Interpath Laboratory
Justine Cole, MBChB, MMed
NIH Clinical Center
1e Interests: Clinical and Laboratory Informatics
Metabolic Signaling
Metabolic Pathways
MD, specialised in chemical pathology at the University of Cape Town. Pursuing a career in clinical and laboratory informatics.
Timothy Collier, PhD
Quest Diagnostics
1e Interests: Proteomics, Lipidomics, Metabolomics, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Oncology, Emerging Technologies, Automation, Data Science
Dr. Timothy Collier is Scientific Director of Research & Development for the Quest Cardiometabolic Center of Excellence at Cleveland HeartLab, where his responsibilities include overseeing the identification and development of assays for cardiovascular biomarkers.
Steven Conklin Lopez, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry
Steven E. Conklin Lopez received his B.S. in Chemistry (2013) from the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras Campus and completed his PhD training (2019) at Duke University under the mentorship of Prof. Katherine J. Franz. As a graduate student, his research focused on understanding the role of metals and metal coordination in the chemical and biological activity of antimicrobial peptides. Currently, he is a Clinical Chemistry Fellow in the Pathology Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
A. Colleen Crouch, PhD
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry imaging, Interventional Radiology, Cancer ablation and embolization treatments, preclinical MRI, cardiovascular imaging
Colleen is a postdoctoral fellow position in the Interventional Radiology Department at UT MD Anderson and earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she began her research in cardiovascular health and thermoregulation. Her background in material science and biomedical engineering provide a unique approach to her research by combining engineering concepts and physiology. Colleen hopes to continue her research as a professor and inspire the next generation of scientists and researchers. Experience in research, teaching (2 semesters as a Graduate Student Instructor), and service (Rackham Student Government Vice President).
Demonstrated history of working in the higher education administration from Rackham Student Government leadership positions. Skilled in Image Analysis, Small Animal Research, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Leadership, MATLAB, Data Analysis, Statistics, and Microsoft Excel/Powerpoint/Word.
Jeany Delafiori, BSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Campinas
1e Interests: Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Mass Spectrometry, Biomarkers, Infectious Diseases
I am Jeany Delafiori, PhD student at University of Campinas (UNICAMP) supervised by Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Ramos Catharino. We focus on untargeted metabolomics approaches to discover and investigate metabolites for clinical diagnosis, prognosis and pathophysiology of infectious diseases. I am currently working in the evaluation of prolonged infection of prostate cells with Zika virus and the metabolic profile of COVID-19 patients.
Christine Dolin, Ph.D.
University of Kentucky
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology
Christine Dolin is a clinical chemistry fellow at the University of Kentucky. She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Louisville in 2019. In her graduate research, she applied proteomics to identify novel drug targets and biomarkers for alcoholic liver disease. She looks forward to continuing to advance her knowledge of mass spectrometry and learn about its applications in the clinical laboratory. She hopes to apply mass spectrometry throughout her future career as a clinical chemist.
Erika Dorado, MSc, PhD
Imperial College London
1e Interests: Lipidomics, Metabolomics, Proteomics, Extracellular vesicles, Biomarkers, Oncology
Erika Dorado is a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London working on lipidomic analysis and the identification of body-fluid based biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. She completed her PhD in Clinical Medicine Research at Imperial College London working on the lipidomic analysis of extracellular vesicles and its potential for cancer diagnosis. Before starting her PhD, she worked on proteomics and phosphoproteomics analysis in cancer signaling pathways at the Barts Cancer Institute. Her MSc was focused on -omics technologies, where she worked on analysis of protein-protein interactions using cross-linking mass spectrometry. She obtained her BSc in Biology focused in molecular and cell biology, and after that worked in the study of mutations in antimalarial and malaria diagnosis targets. She is one of the leads of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN).
Rory Doyle, MS, MSc, Ph,D
Larimar TX
Andrei Drabovich, PhD
University of Alberta
1e Interests: Clinical Proteomics, Mass Spectrometry, Biomarker Discovery
I received my PhD in bioanalytical chemistry from York University, Canada in 2008. After graduation, I completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical proteomics at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto. In November 2018, I was appointed as an Assistant Professor and a Principal Investigator at the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta. My current interests include clinical proteomics, mass spectrometry, prostate cancer, serological testing, and biomarker discovery.
Jolene Duda, BS
University of Minnesota
1e Interests: ovarian cancer, epigenetics, proteomics
I am a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics under the mentorship of Dr. Stefani Thomas. My initial project is focused on a mass-spectrometry based approach to evaluate the utility of HDAC and PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer treatment with an emphasis on determining how epigenetic modifications confer treatment sensitivity in the context of homologous recombination proficiency or deficiency. Overall, I believe my current research plan will support the development of biomedical breakthroughs improving treatment opportunities for patients with this lethal gynecological malignancy.
Merran Dunford, MPharm
University of Bath
1e Interests: Lipid LC-MS, Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Merran is a PhD student with Prof. Randy Mrsny at the University of Bath, UK. Her current research interest focuses on the role of bioactive lipids in the promotion and resolution of inflammation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Merran obtained a Master of Pharmacy degree at the University of Bath (2017) and completed her pharmacy pre-registration training with AstraZeneca (2018).
Yeşim Er Öztaş, MD PhD
Hacettepe University
1e Interests: Lipid biochemistry, lipidomics, oxidative lipidomics
Yesim Er Oztas is a professor of medical biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University,Turkey with almost 25 years of laboratory experience. Dr Oztas had completed a clinical chemistry residency and then she got a PhD degree in Medical Biochemistry. She is a motivated faculty in teaching biochemistry to medical students. The implementation of clinical lipidomics in clinical decision making is one of her future carrier goals.
Her main research topic is protein and lipid abnormalities in sickle cell disease which is a high oxidative stress disease. Lipidomics has the potential to find novel biomarkers in the early diagnosis of sickle cell complications such as vasoocclusions, stroke and acute chest syndrome. Dr. Oztas has been ambitious to continue her carrier in lipidomics research and set up a lipidomics lab in her institution
She organized five local Lipid Research Workshops since 2016. Dr Oztas grows her international network and organized the 5th Lipid Research Workshop as a virtual meeting in English last year.
Dr Oztas has been an active group member in Pan-European Network in Lipidomics and EpiLipidomics (EpiLipidNET) European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action since 2021. She attended many on-line meetings during the pandemic that gave her an opportunity to interact with a highly qualified and inclusive researcher team. This is how she broadened her interest on lipidomics and clinical lipidomics.
She has future plans to make a clinical chemistry fellowship especially on mass spectrometry.
She is the mother of three children, likes reading books and nature. She has developed extensive problem solving and organizational skills during her carrier.
Chris Erickson, PhD
University of Colorado
1e Interests: Graft medicine. Diagnostics
The primary focus of my work is developing diagnostic markers for diseases in trauma, and finding peptide treatments for wound healing
Jessica Espino, PhD
MOBILion Systems
1e Interests: Protein structure, proteomics, mass spectrometry
Ramisa Fariha, Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering
Brown University
1e Interests: metabolomics, cancer diagnostics
Hailing from the small town called Narayanganj in Bangladesh, I am a second-year Ph.D. candidate at the Tripathi Lab for Diagnostics and Microfluidics at Brown University. I pursued my undergraduate education in Biomedical Engineering at Penn State University, where I was the first international student to be the recipient of Freshman of the Year award, as well as graduated as one of the Top 20 Most Active Female Engineers on campus. Upon graduating, I worked briefly in R&D at ACell Inc. (now a part of Integra LifeSciences) in Columbia, MD. After that, I pursued my master’s in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University, working in the Lee Lab for Biomedical Optics and the Morgan lab for Tissue Engineering. I joined the Tripathi lab as a Ph.D. student, leading all LC-MS/MS-based studies. Currently, my team and I design, develop and optimize LC-MS/MS study protocols for automation adaptability. Outside the lab, I am an advocate for international students, students with special needs and females in STEM fields. I am also the founder and President of South Asian Scholars in STEM at Brown. Owing to my contributions, I was awarded the Graduate Student Contribution to Community Life award in 2020.
Erica Fatica, PhD
University of Cincinnati
1e Interests: Test utilization, toxicology, data science, informatics, quality control, quality improvement, endocrinology
Erica Fatica is the Technical Director of Chemistry and Toxicology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. She received her PhD in Clinical-Bioanalytical Chemistry from Cleveland State University and then completed a Clinical Chemistry Fellowship at Mayo Clinic. Her interests include test utilization, toxicology, endocrinology, and data science
Miswar Fattah, Doctoral
Prodia Clinical Laboratory
1e Interests: Clinical Metabolomics
Sina Feizbakhsh Bazargani
University of Florida
1e Interests: HR-LC/MS-based Metabolomics & Lipidomics
Sina received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Sharif University of Technology. To pursue his scientific life as an analytical chemist, he joined the University of Florida. He is currently a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. His research now focuses on finding biomarkers and understanding lipid profiles in pancreatic cells and exosomes, rare disorders, and malaria by implementing UHPLC-HRMS. He utilized IE-omics and multivariate statistical analysis to characterize the major lipids in pancreatic cancer cells and particles.
Caroline Franks, PhD
The National Institutes of Health
Christian Freeman, B.S. in Chemistry
University of Georgia
1e Interests: mass spectrometry, lipidomics, chromatography, extraction methods, chemical separation
I'm currently a second-year graduate student in the Hines lab at the University of Georgia. My focus now is looking into lipid composition variability caused by external growth factors or gene mutation using reversed-phase liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.
Deborah French, PhD, DABCC (CC, TC)
UCSF
Deborah French Ph.D., DABCC (CC, TC) is the Assistant Director of Chemistry and Director of Mass Spectrometry at the University of California San Francisco Clinical Laboratories. Her work currently focuses on the development and validation of LC-MS/MS assays for small molecules, specifically therapeutic drug monitoring, steroid hormones and toxicology. Deborah received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. She subsequently completed a ComACC Clinical Chemistry postdoctoral fellowship under the direction of Dr Alan Wu at the University of California San Francisco and is now board certified in Clinical Chemistry and Toxicological Chemistry by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.
Xiaowei Fu, MD/PhD
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
1e Interests: Inborn Errors of Metabolism, TDM, developing and implementing mass spectrometry-based new testing in clinical lab.
I am currently the director of Biochemical genetics and Special chemistry lab, LeBonheur Children's Hospital, and Associate professor at University of Tennessee Health Science Center. I am Board certified clinical biochemical geneticist by American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics, a fellow of American College of Medical Genetics. I am also certified as specialist in chemistry by American Society of Clinical Pathology. My primary interests are diagnosis and treatment of Inborn Errors of Metabolism. I am also very interested in leading a team developing and implementing mass spectrometry-based testing in clinical lab.
Ria Fyffe-Freil, PhD, MS
Mayo Clinic
1e Interests: Automation, mass-spec based small molecule assays, transplant rejection biomarker test development, toxicology
My background is half clinician/half basic researcher, with passions that lie in the areas of solid organ transplantation and drugs of abuse. I worked in the Emergency Department and as an EMS provider for a decade before and during graduate school. My master's degree thesis critically examined the opiate prescribing practices of ED physicians. My PhD research focused on cellular mechanisms of hypothermic ischemia-reperfusion injury in the liver during the preservation period during transport prior to transplantation.
I knew within a week of beginning my clinical chemistry fellowship at the Mayo Clinic that I'd found the perfect fit - a field that combines clinical and research medical sciences to best serve our patients.
I've learned the diverse utility of mass spectrometry during fellowship and am excited to be part of a community that innovates this technology across the country.
Kate Gallagher, BSc, MRes
Imperial College London
1e Interests: Metabolomics, Microbiome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Clinical Research
Currently a PhD candidate, at Imperial College London, specialising in the metabolomic and microbiomic stratification of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients (both Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis). Some of my skills include biological/clinical sample preparation and analysis using LC-MS, GC-MS, and proton NMR, and the processing of metabolomic data following acquisition. I have a personal interest in scientific writing and communication.
Devanjith Ganepola, Honours Bachelors of Science, specialization in Chemical Biology
McMaster University
1e Interests: Research Interests: Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization, Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectroscopy, Urine Organic Acids, Analytical Separation Science, Clinical Biochemistry, Instrumental Analysis, Metabolism, Genetic Disorders, Inborn Errors of Metabolism
Devanjith Ganepola is a recent graduate from McMaster University in 2020 where he received his B.Sc (Honours) in Chemical Biology. The scope of his undergraduate thesis involved functionalizing graphite-based chemiresistive sensors for nitrate ion detection in aqueous media. Pursuing his passion for chemistry and its application in a medical setting, he will be continuing as a Masters candidate in the Medical Sciences Program at McMaster University where he will be adapting existing GC-MS methods to APGC-MS to determine inborn errors in metabolism of newborn patients.
Roland Geyer, Ph.D.
Thermo Fisher Diagnostics
Switzerland
1e Interests: Clinical Mass Spectrometry, Automation, Lipidomics, Metabolomics, Microbiology
Roland started as a microbiologist where he gained method development expertise using LC-MS. At the University of Tennessee Center for Biomarker Analysis he worked on lipid biomarker analysis using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS systems, including evaluating lipids in breath condensates. In 2006, he joined a leading MS instrument provider as an Application Specialist. In 2009, he joined a company providing laboratory automation systems where he led technology feasibility and development projects for innovative extraction consumables and workflows for the clinical MS lab. In 2015, Roland joined the clinical chemistry department of the University Hospital Bern in Switzerland to gain insights into the feasibility of approaches and concepts in the clinic. Since 2017, he has been working as Business Development Manager for a large life science company in the area of Clinical MS automation. Roland has been attending MSACL since 2010 with the goal of extending the use of LC-MS diagnostic applications into the clinical lab.
Ettore Gilardoni
University of Milan
Mark Girton, M.D.
University of Virginia
1e Interests: Untargeted drug identification by QTOF, drugs of abuse including ∆8-THC, multiomics on FFPE tissue
Mark Girton is currently completing clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine fellowship at the University of Virginia. Before his current fellowship, he completed an AP/CP residency and hematopathology fellowship, also at University of Virginia. His clinical and research interests lie at the intersection of the clinical laboratory and hematologic disease diagnosis.
Gerard Bryan Gonzales, PhD
Wageningen University
1e Interests: metabolomics, lipidomics, malnutrition, child growth, longitudinal studies
Bryan is an assistant professor at Wageningen University working on the understanding of the pathophysiology and long-term metabolic consequences of child malnutrition.
Nicola Gray, PhD
Murdoch University
I joined Murdoch University in 2019 as a Senior Lecturer in Phenomics based at the Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC), specialising in diabetes and obesity. I received my BSc(Hons) in Biomedical Sciences in 2005 from the University of Newcastle, UK, followed by my MSc in Forensic Science at King’s College London in 2008. I completed my PhD at the same institution in analytical chemistry, in particular liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, for the detection of doping agents in sport.
I have worked for instrument manufacturers (Waters Corporation and Shimadzu UK Ltd) as well as in academia (Imperial College London and the University of Reading, UK). My research interests are in the application of chromatography and mass spectrometry for metabolic phenotyping to investigate the interactions between our genes and environment in terms of disease risk. I am particularly interested in the influence of lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise in health and disease, and the role of the microbiome.
My expertise are in analytical chemistry and metabolomics and I have taught into a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on these topics, as well as delivering hands-on training in these areas.
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 plans to combine these training experiences one day in her own independent research group studying host-pathogen-microbiome interactions in the human gut.
John Halifax, BS Chemistry, Magna Cum Laude
UCSF
1e Interests: LC-QTOF-Mass Spec, Overdose Crisis, Chemical Epidemiology
John Halifax graduated from Haverford College with a BS in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Magna cum Laude. He subsequently worked in the non profit sector in his hometown of San Francisco, CA, developing a drug checking service utilizing FTIR spectroscopy to monitor the drug supply in the context of the overdose crisis. He has continued this work in his current role as an academic researcher in the Lynch Clinical Chemistry Research Lab at UCSF. In the Lynch Clinical Chemistry Research Lab he worked extensively on small molecule detection and quantitation using LC-MS/MS and LC-QTOF-MS methods, as well as data science applications for improved analysis. John is currently a second year MS Epidemiology student at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and will begin his PhD in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in Fall 2024.
Peter Harrsch, BS,PhD
Waters Corporation
1e Interests: Use of mass spec in clinical and forensic analysis.
Peter joined Waters Corporation in 2005 as an Executive Clinical/Forensic Specialist. Currently Peter is the Market Development Manager responsible for developing the clinical LC-MS business with the Americas sales team while interfacing with global clinical marketing. Prior to Waters, Peter held various positions as Senior Mass Spectrometry Sales Specialist at Bruker Daltonics, SFC-MS Business Development Manager at Berger Instruments, and Senior Applications Consultant for LC-MS at Agilent Technologies. Before moving to the scientific instrument segment, Peter worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a Senior Research Investigator for Sterling Pharmaceuticals and a Post-Doctoral Scientist at SmithKline focusing mainly on protein drug targets and protein-based biopharmaceuticals.
Over the years, Peter has developed numerous hyphenated mass spec methods for analysis of pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse, protein/peptide drugs, polymers, and small molecule metabolites. Other accomplishments include the development of the first commercially available SFC-MS system. Peter has delivered many LC-MS training courses and has given poster and oral presentations at numerous scientific meetings.
Zane Hauck, PhD
ZRT Laboratory
1e Interests: Mass Spec, endocrinology, mitochondria
Dr. Zane Hauck is the Assistant Laboratory Director and Research Scientist at ZRT Laboratory. In this role, Dr. Hauck ensures the highest quality and accuracy for all samples run through ZRT and develops new laboratory tests to allow providers access a much broader depth of individualized profiles to aid them in their assessment of health and disease. Dr. Hauck is an educator for ZRT and communicates the importance of laboratory testing and its usefulness to providers and the general public through speaking engagements, posters, and blogs.
Dr. Hauck began working at ZRT in March 2019 after spending 2 years in the dietary supplement industry as a formulator and quality manager. He received his PhD in Pharmacognosy from the University of Illinois at Chicago under the tutelage of Dr. Richard van Breemen in 2017.
Liam Heaney, PhD
Loughborough University
Dr Liam Heaney is a Senior Lecturer in Bioanalytical Science based in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, UK. His research interests focus principally on the use of high-throughput measurement of small molecule biomarkers, with aligned interests in discovery-based omics applications. These activities include projects that span across multiple disciplines including clinical diagnostic and prognostic applications, nutrition and physiology, and sports anti-doping/drugs of abuse. His work is centered around the application of analytical chemistry applying both gas chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. He sits as an Executive Committee Member of the British Mass Spectrometry Society and was recently voted onto The Analytical Scientists Top 40 Under 40 for his work in promoting the use of mass spectrometry in sport & exercise science/nutrition.
Amber Herold
MSACL
1e Interests: Data Science, Community Building, Hiking
Amber is VP of MSACL and co-founder and developer of BadgerScan. Amber earned a BS in Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego. Post-graduation, Amber was involved in a startup company developing computer vision algorithms. After the wee company was purchased by a proper non-startup company, Amber spent eight years practicing the development of proper-production-quality code. This was followed by five years at The Scripps Research Institute in an Electron Microscopy lab. A side project developing the BadgerScan lead collection App pulled Amber into the MSACL community.
Katharina Herzog, PhD
Karolinska Institute, Sweden
1e Interests: Inherited metabolic diseases, Diabetes, Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Multi-OMICS, Data analysis & Data visualisation using R, Clinical Chemistry, Epidemiology, Science Communication, Advocating for early-career researchers in Academia
CURRENT COMMITTEE WORK
2019 - Present Elected board member Nordic Metabolomics Society; Early-career representative
2018 - Present Elected Committee Member Early-career Member Network of the Metabolomics Society
2018 - Present Steering board member National Junior Faculty (as well as member of local committees at University of employment)
WORK EXPERIENCE
2019 - Present Postdoctoral Fellow (Novo Nordisk Fellowship programme), Karolinska Institute, Sweden
2017-2019 Postdoctoral researcher, Lund University Diabetes Center, Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Sweden
EDUCATION
2017 PhD in Biomedicine (Marie Curie ITN Fellow), Laboratory Genetic Metabolic Diseases, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013 MSc Molecular Bioscience - University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
2011 BSc Nutrition Sciences - Christian-Albrechts-University, Germany
Ridwan Babatunde Ibrahim, M.Sc., Ph.D.
University of Calgary
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology, Method development, LC-MS and GC-MS.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary. I received both Bachelors and Master's degree in Anatomy from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
I am interested in undergoing the clinical chemistry fellowship.
Johny Ijaq, PhD
University of Hyderabad
Retisoft Inc
Retisoft is a leading provider of lab-automation software and hardware built upon flexibility, innovation, and improvement. Our company takes a smart approach to automation, thinking outside of the box and focusing on developing the most powerful scheduler in the lab automation market, Genera. We offer superior lab automation products so you can integrate all existing hardware and software into one streamlined platform. Retisoft helps with engineering, lab automation, and scientific application consulting, software support, and custom development. Along with ongoing hardware and maintenance support, Retisoft can be trusted to follow up with customers to ensure the lab automation systems in place are consistently working as intended. We take a flexible approach to maximize throughput and strive to improve upon our current systems continuously. Industry leaders choose to work with Retisoft, motivating us to deliver the highest quality automated solutions. Our customers can expect transparent communication, commitment, passion, teamwork, and above all, trust.
Ólöf Gerður Ísberg, MSc, PhD
Vanderbilt University, MSACL Early Career Network
1e Interests: Multi-omics, single-cell analysis, imaging mass spectrometry
Ólöf Gerður Ísbert is a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University where she works on mapping the whole molecular atlas of the kidneys using IMS and microscopy.. She earned a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from the University of Iceland in 2021, with work on the project being conducted in London as a collaboration with Imperial College London. The thesis topic was metabolic identification in FFPE breast cancer using DESI-MSI.
Ólöf obtained her B.Sc. at University of Iceland in Biochemistry with focus on molecular biology. She achieved her M.Sc. at University of Copenhagen (Denmark) in Human Biology, with focus on cellular and molecular biology. She has 3 years experience working as a research assistant for both University of Iceland and University of Copenhagen as well as she did a short-term internship at the Danish pharmaceutical company, Lundbeck.
Ólöf is one of the leads of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN).
Helen Jordan, BSc
University of Leicester
1e Interests: Metabolomics, LC-MS, heart failure & biomarkers
Hi, my name is Helen and I am in my final few months as a PhD student at the University of Leicester. My PhD thesis is titled "Investigation of novel metabolomic biomarkers of heart failure". I have pursued two different biomarkers in my PhD. One amino acid and one lysophosphatidylcholine. Both of these I have discovered in untargeted work and then progressed onto quantifying them in a large clinical cohort of heart failure patients.
In April, when my thesis is finished, I will be moving across the Atlantic to join the Thomas lab at the University of Minnesota for 6 months. Here I will use proteomics for the first time, as my PhD has been predominantly metabolomics with a little bit of lipidomics.
Parisa Kargaran, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral research fellow at Mayo Clinic
Mst Ummul Khair, PhD Candidate
Cleveland State University
1e Interests: Clinical-Bioanalytical Chemistry
PhD candiadte at Cleveland State University.
Seunghwan Kim, Master
Seoul National Univ. Hospital
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Diagnostic molecular biology, Diagnostic hematology
EDUCATION
M.D. / PhD. medicine 03/2019 – present
Graduate School of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
M.D. medicine 03/2009 – 02/2014
Graduate School of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
B.S Bioscience 03/2005 – 02/2009
School of Biolgical Science Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
WORK EXPERIENCE PLACEMENT
Fellowship, Seoul National University Hospital 03/2022 – present
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Resident, Seoul National University Hospital 05/2018 – 02/2022
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Captain, Medical Officer, Special force, Republic of Korea Army 03/2015 – 04/2018
Developed clinical experience on epidemic disease in military group
Internship, Seoul National University Hospital 02/2014 – 02/2015
Christopher Koch, PhD, DABCC
Sanford Health
Dr. Chris Koch is the Director of Chemistry at the Sanford Laboratories reference lab in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is currently developing a clinical mass spectrometry program with an initial focus on clinical toxicology. He is also actively involved in teaching Clinical Chemistry in the University of South Dakota Pathology Residency program at the Sanford Health Sioux Falls Medical Center.
Dr. Koch worked for nearly a decade as a Clinical Laboratory Technician and Development Technician in the Hospital Clinical Laboratories of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he first developed a passion for laboratory medicine. He received his PhD in Clinical-Bioanalytical Chemistry from Cleveland State University and performed his dissertation research at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. He completed his fellowship training in Clinical Chemistry at Yale-New Haven Health and is board certified in clinical chemistry.
John Koomen, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center
1e Interests: Cancer Research, Proteomics, Mass Spectrometry, Metabolomics, Multi-Omics
Research in the Koomen Laboratory focuses on analytical chemistry development, elucidation of biological processes, and implementation of clinical assays using proteomics, metabolomics, and quantitative mass spectrometry. Much of this work is performed using liquid chromatography-multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (LC-MRM). We have developed a 97 protein panel that is being applied to prescreening, selection of therapy, and matching to clinical trials. We are evaluating cancer signaling proteins, immune cell markers, and other biomarkers in the context of the tumor phenotype using this highly multiplexed approach. In multiple myeloma, this technique is being applied to develop novel strategies to evaluate tumor burden. Current clinical assays use gel or capillary electrophoresis to measure the antibody secreted by the myeloma, which is used to stage the patients and estimate tumor burden. Quantitative mass spectrometry should be significantly more sensitive at detecting and quantifying these antibodies. Improvements in the analytical technique would lead to earlier detection of disease relapse, more rapid intervention with second line therapies, and potentially improved patient outcomes. These projects share the common goal of changing the standard of patient assessment and care using mass spectrometry.
Daniel Kratz, Pharmacist, 3rd state examination (Germany)
Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmazentrum Frankfurt/Zafes, University Hospital of Goethe-University
My name is Daniel Kratz and I'm currently in the last phase of my Ph.D. (3rd year) at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of the Goethe-University, Frankfurt. I'm a trained pharmacist but decided to go back to university because I like to get to the bottom of things and enjoy developing and optimizing processes. I now work in the field of analytical chemistry to improve detection limits of small molecules (lipids and lipid mediators) in biological matrices using µLC-MS and to examine critical factors during sample generation (pre-analytical research). I enjoy data visualization and creation of vector graphics to communicate my research which also helps me with my private projects using my pen plotter.
Samuel Krug, MSFS
University of Maryland, Baltimore
1e Interests: CNS Drug Delivery, Biomarker Discovery, PK/PD of Novel Drug Modalities
Sam is currently a 4th year PhD Student at University of Maryland, Baltimore studying Pharmaceutical Sciences in the lab of Dr. Maureen Kane. Sam's research projects include studying host-pathogen interactions for Pseudomonas aeruginosa in lung infection, understanding the role of Vitamin A and retinoic acid (RA) in different health conditions, and developing diagnostic markers for traumatic brain injury. His future research interests include drug discovery and design of antibiotics for antibiotic resistant infection, understanding the impacts of medicinal cannabis use for chronic pain, and optimizing CNS drug delivery. Outside of the lab, Sam volunteers with Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), where he helps to plan the Annual Conference for LGBT+ individuals in STEM.
Guinevere Lageveen-Kammeijer, PhD
University of Groningen
1e Interests: Biomarker discovery, clinical translation, glycosylation, mass spectrometry
Guinevere received her PhD on exploring prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the well-known biomarker for prostate cancer, and its glycosylation by capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Since 2022, Guinevere is appointed as an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Analytical Biochemistry group at the Univeristy of Groningen She currently works on further expanding a mass spectrometry-based PSA glycosylation assay which she developed during her PhD. In addition, she explores the possibilities for the in-depth analysis of glycans and intact glycoproteins for biomarker discovery for other diseases as well as for the characterization of biopharmaceuticals. In 2017, Guinevere joined the organization committee of the Netherlands Area Biotech (NLab) Discussion group of CASSS. In 2019, she became a member of the scientific committee of the glycomics session, and a member of the early career committee, of MSACL EU. Her research interests are focused on bringing together researchers from the field of biomarker discovery with clinical laboratory professionals, ensuring a better translation of potential biomarkers to the clinic. Moreover, she is dedicated to convincing her fellow colleagues that glycosylation is an important subject and should not be neglected just because it is rather complicated.
Sarrah Lahorewala, BDS, PhD
Houston Methodist Hospital
Dr. Sarrah Lahorewala completed her training as a dental surgeon from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, India, in 2014, following which she worked as a lecturer in the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology. In 2020 she graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry and Cancer Biology from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. She is currently a second-year Clinical Chemistry Fellow at Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX.
Cyrille Lamboley, MasterII
Restek
Cyrille Lamboley has a Master Degree in Analytical Chemistry and has been working in the field of Liquid Chromatography and Sample Preparation for more than 15 years. After working several years for Waters and Biotage, he has joined Restek in 2018 as LC & Sample Prep Specialist.
1e Interests: Ambient MAss Spectrometry, Early Detection of Cancer, Surface modification.
I'm a 2nd year PhD student at Imperial College London with a background in Biochemistry, and Bioengineering. My current work is focused on the early detection of colorectal cancer using surface-enhanced ambient mass spectrometry.
Jikyo Lee, M.D.
Seoul National University Hospital
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry
2016 Grauate of Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine,
2019~2021 Resident training in Seoul Nationl University Hospital (SNUH),
2022~2023 Fellow in SNUH as a specailist in Labroatory Medicine.
Jiajun Lei, PhD
Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine
1e Interests: metabolomics, lipidomics, LC-MS, NMR
Jiajun Lei earned his PhD from the chemistry department at University of Florida in August 2022 under the guidance of Dr. Richard A. Yost and Dr. Matthew E. Merritt. During his graduate study, he focused on developing novel segmented flow technologies to leverage mass spectrometric and NMR analysis from a single liquid chromatography run with perfect retention time registration for unknown metabolite and lipid isomer differentiation. Currently, he is a research scientist in the molecular analytics lab at Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine where he is looking at ways to apply liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based molecular analytical techniques to further understanding of human metabolism and disease processes.
Yaxin Li, Master of science
Cleveland State University
1e Interests: Drug analysis by HPLC-MS/MS
Hsuan-Chieh (Joyce) Liao, PhD, DABCC, FADLM
University of Washington
1e Interests: Toxicology, small molecular and clinical LC-MS/MS, Utilization, Newborn screening
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 serves 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.
Estela Lima, Post-doctorate
São Paulo State University (UNESP)
1e Interests: Metabolomics, Clinical Application, Proteomics, Diagnosis
My trajectory has been within the academic environment and I am passionate about teaching and learning, as well as learning and teaching. Through my scientific journey, I realized that people are the focus of my work. Through encouragement and guidance, people can do a lot for our world through science. That's why I became a teacher! As a young professor in Brazil, the challenges are enormous for science. I hope to make good international partnerships and collaborate with Brazilian students, in order to transform, even a little, Brazil's faith and enlightenment in science, in addition to contribute to the development of my country.
Yanchun Lin, PhD
Washington University School of Medicine in St louis
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry, toxicology, proteomics, new born screening
Yanchun Lin is currently the clinical chemistry fellow at the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She received her PhD in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research interests include mass spectrometry, toxicology, proteomics, pediatrics, lab stewardship and informatics.
Ruben Y. Luo, PhD, DABCC
Stanford University
1e Interests: High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry; Top-down Proteomics; Compound Derivatization for Mass Spectrometry; Label-Free Immunoassay
Ruben Y. Luo, PhD, DABCC, FADLM is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Stanford University and Associate Director of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory at Stanford Health Care. He has been dedicated to innovations in translational laboratory medicine: discovery of novel diagnostic markers and innovation of diagnostic technologies. His research focuses on (1) discovering the clinical diagnostic value of molecular characteristics of protein biomarkers, and (2) developing high-resolution mass spectrometry and label-free optical sensing technologies for characterization and accurate measurement of biomarkers. He completed his clinical chemistry fellowship at University of California San Francisco. Prior to the fellowship, he had several years of work experience in the clinical diagnostic industry. He received his PhD in analytical chemistry from Stanford University, and BS in chemistry from Peking University.
Gargi Mahapatra, PhD
University of California San Diego
1e Interests: Neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's Disease, Clinical Studies, Project Management, Leadership, Training, Translational Research and Development,
I am a molecular biologist and biochemist by training, specializing in Alzheimer's disease clinical studies. My research focuses on the pathological changes in mitochondrial functions, and factors mediating these changes, at the early stages of cognitive decline. My goal is to develop detection strategies for Alzheimer's disease at the earliest stages. I am using human samples collected from Alzheimer's disease clinical study participants to assess mitochondrial bioenergetic differences among different cognitive groups ranging from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment to dementia, and measure changes in levels of different metabolites mediating these changes. Apart from research, I manage the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study biological specimen and sample repositories at UCSD. I lead the operation of sharing these samples to other scientists and researchers, along with maintaining these samples. I am lead a team of research scientists to perform the research, and mentor undergraduate students to develop their own research.
Zhalaliddin Makhammajanov, Master in Molecular Medicine
Nazarbayev University School of Medicine
Malena Manzi, PhD
Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industria & CONICET, Argentina
1e Interests: MS-based metabolomics, pharmacometabolomics, mass spectrometry imaging, cancer, biomarker, pre-clinical studies, drug development
I obtained my degree of Biochemist in 2010 and my Ph.D diploma in cancer biology in 2016 at the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2016, I obtained a postdoctoral position at the Centro de Investigaciones en Bionanociencias (CIBION) of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), a national reference laboratory for MS-based metabolomics studies, with the mentorship of Dr. María Eugenia Monged. In particular, I applied UPLC-QTOF-MS coupled with multivariate analysis to profile the metabolome and the lipidome of human serum samples as well as in vitro models to discover clear cell renal cell carcinoma biomarkers. Moreover, I had the opportunity to work as a part of multiple collaborative projects in a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), MARSU Project: “MARine atmospheric Science Unravelled: analytical and mass spectrometric techniques development and application”, performing seawater omics studies applying DART-MS. In 2019, I participated in the 4th International School of Mass Spectrometry (Spain) and obtained an award for the best oral presentation. During 2017-2019, I participated as a teaching assistant in 3 international courses that focused in metabolomics. In 2020, I got a permanent position as a career researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (Argentina), to work in the Laboratory of Dr. María Julieta Comin. I am in charge of expanding the MS capabilities in the Chemical Department and to perform pharmacometabolomics studies to contribute to the development of new compounds for disease treatment. I will be able to expand the acquired knowledge in MS-based metabolomics for new ideas to address healthcare issues in the region. In 2016 I became a member of the Argentinian Mass Spectrometry Society. I have been a teaching assistant for Advanced Biological Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Buenos Aires for last 10 years, allowing me to keep in touch with young students and to participate of the teaching-learning process within the framework of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology. (ORCID: 0000-0002-1709-0685)
Mariya Mardamshina, M.D.
Tel Aviv University
1e Interests: Clinical proteomics, cancer proteomics
John G Marshall, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Ryerson University
1e Interests: Blood Ligands and Receptors
I am a professor of Analytical Biochemistry in the Ryerson Analytica Biochemistry Laboratory (RABL). I focus on the extracellular or circulating protein ligands in the blood and their receptors on the surface of cells. I use the combination of enzymatic, biochemical, immunological, molecular, mass spectrometric and laser confocal microscopic methods to analyze blood proteins or peptides and their receptors on cells. Cell receptors were ligated, activated and captured using ligand micro beads for LC-ESI-MS/MS and laser confocal analysis with receptor function assays testing drugs and siRNA or dominant negative mutants. Blood proteins and peptides, or secreted proteins, were compared between serum or plasma samples from normal, controls and diseases, developmental stages, or cells lines. Our lab uses SQL/R database and statistical analysis of proteomic results from large scale LC-ESI-MS/MS experiments. We invented the ultra sensitive ELIMSA system for linear quantification of pico to femto gram amounts of proteins, ligands or nucleic acids that can accurately quantify a single alkaline phosphatase-streptavidin (APSA) enzyme conjugate.
Nikki Mathewson, PhD
University of Utah
Dr. Nicole (Nikki) Mathewson is currently a clinical chemistry fellow at ARUP Laboratories/University of Utah. She graduated from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, with a BS in Medical Biology and a minor in Chemistry in 2017. Nikki earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2022. Her PhD work focused on developing bioanalytical methods to sequence the guanine oxidation product 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine in RNA. She enjoys hiking, backpacking, playing volleyball, and traveling. She is thrilled to be a part of the MSACL family and is excited to network with other members.
Anthony Maus, B.S., Ph. D.
Mayo Clinic
Robert Maynard, PhD
University of North Carolina
1e Interests: Clinical laboratory testing
I am a first year clinical chemistry fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. I'm originally from upstate New York (New York City’s park), where terms like “lake effect snow” and “garbage plates” are commonplace in conversation. I completed my graduate studies at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY in Pathology where I validated a locus uncovered by human genome-wide association studies on a gene no one has heard of (but take my word for it, it was a really cool gene). Since then, I am a recovering PhD student/Instructor and enjoying every day of clinical laboratory testing. My goal for this year is to level up from a “Non-existent” mass spectrometry experience level to “Low/Medium” experience. I am taking it one day at a time, and I am loving it.
ng mei li, phd
National University of Singapore
Current Research Interest
Experimental, basic science, clinical and epidemiological studies relating to aspects of insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risks in patients with diabetes and metabolic disease. Current research projects include;
• Discovery and validation of oxidative stress biomarker panels in patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• Clinical trials, pharmaco-interventional studies to identify novel therapeutic target for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Ira Miller, BS BA
Mayo Clinic
1e Interests: Proteomics, Mass Spectrometry, Plasma Cell Disorders including multiple myeloma and amyloidosis.
Adrienn Molnár, MSc in Chemistry
Waters Research Center, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University
Sudheer Moorkoth, MPharm, PhD
Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences
1e Interests: Analytical method Development, Newborn Screening, Bioavailability enhancement
Dr Sudheer Moorkoth is Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance, at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal. He completed 26 years of teaching Pharmacy students and has received award for excellence in teaching in 2014 and Good teacher award in 2017. His research area of expertise is in LCMS analytical method development and validation for diagnostic and pharma applications. He has guided 6 PhD students. He has published about 52 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is the recipient of “Grand Challenges” grant from the Canadian government to study the need and viability of newborn screening programme in India. He has established a newborn screening lab under the “Centre for excellence in inborn errors of metabolism” at MAHE with funding from Government of Karnataka under the CESEM scheme of VGST. Currently working on an ICMR funded project to develop a formulation for the eradication of H.pylori.
Ganesh Moorthy, PhD
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
1e Interests: Pharmacokinetics and TDM
The primary focus of my research is working with physicians and scientists to solve complex problems in pediatric drug development. Our laboratory is equipped with UPLC-MS/MS and UHPLC-MS/MS systems and Watson LIMS. We specialize in the development and validation of analytical methods and their implementation for pediatric and adult clinical sample analysis. Our clinical research is focused on the pharmacokinetic analysis of dexmedetomidine, midazolam, morphine, ketamine, cefepime, cefazolin, voriconazole, efavirenz, tenofovir, vancomycin, and cannabinoids. We also have expertise in the fast assay development for preclinical studies in various biological matrices. Our preclinical research involves the pharmacokinetic analysis of treprostinil, oxycodone, SN-38, irinotecan, vemurafenib, and tamoxifen. In addition, I contribute to building a biorepository for samples from critically ill children. We continue to evaluate and utilize new tools and microsampling technologies to facilitate preclinical, translational, and clinical research.
Sreenath Nair, Ph.D.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
1e Interests: Clinical Mass Spectrometry, Pharmacokinetics, Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Bioinformatics
Mass spectrometric researcher with 9 years experience in clinical pharmacokinetics and metabolomics.
Ahmed Najar, PhD
UCSF
1e Interests: Mass Spectrometry, Data Science, Sample Preparation
Trained as an engineer, I gravitated towards natural products chemistry in grad school to find myself in clinical chemistry thanks to MSACL. When I'm not troubleshooting a MS, I'm enjoying nature through hiking and swimming
Chi Nguyen, PhD
Precision Biomarker Laboratories Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles
1e Interests: clinical proteomics
Zhixu Ni, PhD
Center of Membrane Biochemistry and Lipid Research, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus of the Technical University Dresden
1e Interests: Lipidomics, epilipidomics, LC-MS, Systems Biology
Zhixu Ni is a postdoc researcher at the Fedorova research group. Originally coming from analytical chemistry background (MSc, Leipzig University, Germany), Zhixu Ni transitioned to data analysis and software development during his PhD study on MS based lipidomics. Zhixu Ni’s main research interest is the dysregulation of enzymatically and non-enzymatically modified lipidome and metabolome in metabolic disorders with a strong focus on the high throughput LC-MS lipidomics data analysis and integration of multi-omics data. He is the main developer of several open source lipidomics tools including LipidHunter2, LPPtiger, LipidCircos, and LipidLynxX.
Krishnatej Nishtala, PhD
Macquarie University
1e Interests: Method development in Proteomics/Targeted Proteomics, PTM Mass spectrometry
I obtained my PhD from University of Greifswald, Germany in Cardiovascular proteomics where I studied proteomic differences in chronic stages of dilated cardiomyopathy in mice models. Subsequently I worked in industry and in research lab as protein mass spectrometrist. I am currently working as a research associate in glycoproteomics at the Dept. of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University. My research interests are method development in mass spectrometry and it's applications in Proteomics
Sarah Noll, BA, MPhil
Stanford University
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry imaging, DESI-MSI, Probe/spray source development, Method development, Metabolomics, Lipidomics
Sarah Noll is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University with Professor Richard N. Zare. Her research is focused on clinical and biological applications of DESI-MSI. Sarah graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in both chemistry and German studies. Following graduation, she spent a year studying catalytic inorganic nanoparticles at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany on a Fulbright grant. She then obtained her MPhil in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, using Raman spectroscopy to non-invasively identify sub-surface pigments in works of art. Outside of research, Sarah is actively involved in undergraduate education and outreach, as well as young women’s leadership development. She also works as a student museum guide at the Cantor Arts Center and the Anderson Collection on the Stanford campus.
1e Interests: Computational proteomics, transcriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics and Omics data integration
I am currently a PhD student at the University of Cape Town. I also have an MSc degree in bioinformatics.
Lily Olayinka, PhD
Baylor College of Medicine
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Biomarker discovery, Oncology, biochemical test development
Lily is a Clinical Chemistry Fellow at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children Hospital in Houston, Texas. She received her Ph.D. in Medical Science from the Hull York Medical School in England. During her graduate research, she applied proteomics to identify novel drug targets and biomarkers for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. She also served as a Medical Laboratory Scientist at the Clinical Biochemistry department of the NHS lab in Hull from 2013 to 2016. Her current interests include Laboratory stewardship, biomarker discovery, and the development of accurate and cost-saving laboratory tests.
Romina Pacheco, Ph.D.
Université de Lille
1e Interests: Natural products, microorganisms, metabolomics, microbiome, -omics, health, drug discovery
Due to my interest in microbiology and biochemistry of our nature, I have worked with different types of microorganisms studying their pathogenicity but also their bioactive natural products. Thanks to the analytical tools I have discovered over time, I gained interest in metabolomics. During my PhD at the University of Toulouse, I applied a metabolomics approach using UHPLC-HRMS/MS to study the natural products of an endophytic fungal strain. During my current postdoc at the University of Lille, integrated into the metabolomics platform at EGID, I am highly motivated to apply and share my current knowledge in metabolomics in order to study the microbial and human metabolome and its link with health.
Kuin Tian Pang, PhD
Bioprocessing Technology Institute, A*STAR
1e Interests: Glycomic, Mechanobiological study of glycosylation, Biological data analytics, Real-time and high throughput monitoring of glycosylation in bioprocessing
Dr Zach Pang is a research fellow at the GlycoAnalytics group, Bioprocessing Technology Institute, A*STAR Singapore. His research focuses on the glycomic and glycoproteomic of biologics. He obtained his PhD from the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London under the A*STAR Graduate Scholarship. His PhD study focused on the role of haemodynamic wall shear stress and LRG1 in cardiovascular diseases.
Sean Pawlowski, PhD
Ionpath
Sean Pawlowski obtained his Ph.D. from Duquesne University while working under Dr. Mitch Johnson. His work was focused on the ultratrace detection of small biomolecules by fluorescence detection.
Upon leaving Duquesne, Sean worked for Extrel, a quadrupole mass spectrometer company, working his way up from a Technical Support Scientist to the Product Manager and Lead Applications Chemist for their Research Mass Spectrometers Division. Sean collaborated with world wide users of Extrel’s MS systems with direct work on systems at NASA, JPL, Max Planck Institute and more.
After leaving Extrel, Sean moved on to CAMO, a small cannabis extraction and purification startup, as the Lab Director and VP of Scientific Advancement. Sean established the purification division, helped author their SOPs, and trained a staff of highly skilled scientists. Before leaving CAMO, Sean developed their testing protocols and validation lab and presented those to legislators in Harrisburg as they developed their regulations and testing protocols.
Sean is now working for Ionpath, a spatial biology company, where he works on advancing highly multiplexed ion beam imaging techniques. His knowledge and experience has led him to be one of the senior subject matter experts in time-of-flight secondary-ion-mass-spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) as well as mass spectral imaging (MSi) at Ionpath. Sean now travels the world collaborating with researchers and pathologists to help develop spatial biology solutions for immuno-oncology, drug targeting, and other tissue microenvironment needs.
Sean currently resides in Springdale, PA with his wife Nikki, daughter Harper, and cat Opal. He is the President and CEO of Alpha Chi Sigma, the Professional Co-Ed Fraternity in the Chemical Sciences, serving a two-year term from 2022 - 2024. When not traveling for work, he can be found enjoying all that Pittsburgh has to offer.
Isabella Piga, PostDoc
University of Milano-Bicocca
1e Interests: Proteomics, LC-MS/MS, MALDI-MSI, Imaging mass spectrometry
Robert Plumb, PhD
Waters Corporation
Dr Robert Plumb is the Director of Omics and Small Molecule Pharma in the Waters Scientific Operations Division, based in Milford, Massachusetts.
Dr Plumb has published over 100 papers on the subject of HPLC/MS and NMR for bioanalysis, metabolomics and metabolite identification. He is a recognized expert in the use of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry, capillary scale LC, purifications scale LC and metabonomics, giving many invited papers at international meetings around the world.
After obtaining an honors degree in Chemistry from the University of Hertfordshire in 1992, he started work in at Glaxo Research and Development Drug Metabolism Department. During his time at Glaxo and later GlaxoWellcome he continued his research in liquid chromatography combined with NMR and mass spectrometry for metabolite identification and bioanalysis obtaining his PhD in 1999. Dr Plumb continued his work for GlaxoWellcome with the responsibility of metabolite identification using HPLC/MS/NMR and new analytical technology development. In 2001 he moved to Waters Corporation in Milford, MA, USA where he was responsible for the Life Science Chromatography group and latterly LC/MS applications in the Pharmaceutical Market Development Group before becoming the Director of Metabolic Phenotyping in 2013 and the Director of Omics and Small molecule Pharma in the Scientific Operations Division in 2017. He has been awarded several visiting Professorships including visiting Professor in at Kings College London, visiting Professor at Imperial College in the Dept Surgery and Cancer, Visit Professor at Murdoch University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2014 he was awarded Highly Cited Researcher by Thompson Reuters.
Bini Ramachandran, PhD
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry, Proteomics, Method development and validation
I am a postdoctoral research associate at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently I am working on targeted method development for detection and quantification of proteins in foods which can trigger an allergic response in susceptible individuals. Considering the complexity of food matrices and the type of processing these foods have undergone, I equate my project to solving a multi-level puzzle with increasing challenges to overcome at each level. I am fascinated by the technology behind mass spectrometry and its applications, especially in field of proteomics. So far in my career I got opportunities to employ mass spectrometry and proteomics to address challenges in food allergy, cell biology, infectious disease biology, cancer biology, and bacterial strain improvement. I believe mastering in the art of mass spectrometry will open a path to apply one’s expertise in various areas, from academia to industry, from clinical labs to pharmaceutical manufacturing. I am expecting to transition out of my current postdoctoral position towards the second half of 2021. I would like to transition into a job where I can combine my passion for mass spectrometry, proteomics, and method development. I could see myself fitting well in the role of an R&D scientist in instrumentation industry, in clinical proteomics labs, or in biopharmaceutical industry. I am looking for opportunities to netwrok with people from these areas.
Ivayla Roberts, MSc, MRes
University of Liverpool
Ivayla Roberts is a doctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool in Prof. Kell system biology group. Originally coming from computer science background (MSc, Montpellier France) Iva transitioned to molecular biology research via a Translational Molecular Medicine MRes (Manchester, UK).
Iva’s research interests are metabolomics, mass-spectrometry, and the application of statistical and machine learning computational approaches to metabolomics.
Iva’s PhD is focused on metabolomics in COVID-19.
Jason Robinson, PhD
Health PEI Provincial Laboratory Services
1e Interests: Clinical Mass spectrometry, Paper Spray Mass spec, LCMSMS, Toxicology, Endocrinology
I am a Clinical Biochemist practicing on Prince Edward Island, Canada. I am interested in novel testing approaches and interpretation within the clinical laboratory. I'm presently focused on implementing and developing mass spec methodologies for the first time on the island using LCMSMS and PSMSMS. I did my Clinical Biochemistry fellowship training at the University of Calgary following an academic post-doc at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. My graduate training was in the area of amino acid metabolism of the newborn at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I am passionate about mentorship in science and am an avid outdoorsmen. I live in Charlottetown with my wife and growing family.
Hoda Safari Yazd
University of Florida, MSACL Early Career Network
1e Interests: Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Machine Learning
Hoda Safari Yazd is a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry at the University of Florida and working under the supervision of Prof. Richard Yost and Dr. Timothy Garrett. She received her B.Sc. in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology in 2015 and her M.Sc. in computational chemistry from the same school in 2017. Hoda's research at UF primarily focuses on combining analytical chemistry tools and scientific programming for the metabolomic discovery of rare disorders. She is currently working on two projects; the first project concentrates on the detection of new biomarkers in meningiomas to improve early detection of this disease by employing machine learning as a tool on mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data. The second project is focused on the characterization of rare X-chromosome deletion disorders using metabolomics and lipidomics workflows by UHPLC-HRMS on neural progenitor cells. Hoda is one of the founding members and main organizers of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL-ECN).
Hammam Said, PhD analytical chemistry
Dalhousie University
1e Interests: Clinical related cancer research in proteomics
Vishnu Samara, Ph.D.
University of Chicago
1e Interests: Clinical Toxicology, Vitamins, Steroids, Therapeutic Drugs
Sumedh Sankhe, MS - Data Science
Mark Savitskii, PhD student
Laboratory of Pharmacokinetics and Metabolomic Analysis.
Institute of Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
1e Interests: Metabolomics, pharmacokinetics
Emily Sekera, PhD
The Ohio State University
1e Interests: Imaging Mass Spectrometry, -Omics Based Techniques
Emily Sekera earned her B.S. in chemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2015. She then completed her graduate studies in analytical chemistry at University at Buffalo, in the laboratory of Prof. Troy D. Wood studying disease states using -omics based techniques and high resolution mass spectrometry. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher working under Dr. Amanda B. Hummon investigating at the intersection of cancer biology and analytical chemistry.
Rohan Shah, MS in Pharmaceutical Sci.
Cleveland State University
1e Interests: GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, Small molecules
Eric Yi-Liang Shen, PhD
Imperial College London
1e Interests: Oncology, metabolomics
Philip Sobolesky, PhD
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Bloomsburg University with a minor in chemistry in 2009 and my Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 2014. I completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at MUSC in the Nephrology proteomics laboratory where I focused on learning tandem mass spectrometry and discovery of protein biomarkers for metabolic syndrome in bottlenose dolphins. I successfully completed an ABCC certified Clinical Chemistry Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego and an active member of AACC, ASMS, AACR, NRCC and MSACL.
During my postdoctoral research I learned the fundamentals of mass spectrometry assay development and validated a multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry assay for the measurement of clinically relevant peptide modifications in serum samples. As a Clinical Chemistry Fellow at UCSD my research focused on developing a LC-MS/MS assay for marijuana markers indicating recent use in oral fluid, whole blood, and breath to be used in a study for establishing the driving impairment limit. I was also involved in identifying drugs via broad screen urine analysis using all-ion tandem mass spectrometry.
Currently I am the Clinical Biochemist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center where my responsibilities are overseeing Chemistry, Special Chemistry, and Toxicology. I am actively involved in clinical service and currently mentor future clinical laboratory scientists at San Jose State University.
Trenton Stewart, MSc Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, MSc of Science
Warwick University
1e Interests: Breath and Biomarker Research
Frederick Strathmann, PhD, MBA
MOBILion Systems
1e Interests: Mass Spectrometry, Clinical Chemistry, Data Analytics, Laboratory Medicine
Fred has been in laboratory medicine for over 10 years and has held various positions including Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Medical Director of Toxicology, Scientific Director of Mass Spectrometry, and Senior Vice President of Operations and R&D. He has worked in hospital and national reference laboratory environments, is board certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in both Clinical Chemistry and Toxicological Chemistry and qualifies as a CLIA Certified Laboratory Director for High Complexity Testing. He completed his MS and PhD in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Genetics from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York, a Clinical Fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and an MBA from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fred is driven by the impact that laboratory testing has on healthcare outcomes and is thrilled to be a part of MOBILion’s mission and to help extend its capabilities into clinical diagnostics.
Devin Swiner, PhD in Analytical Chemistry (Intended May 2021), B.S. in Chemistry (2016)
The Ohio State University
1e Interests: Method development for clinical diagnostic testing, small molecule and/or macromolecule analysis with mass spectrometry
Devin J. Swiner currently is a 5th year, PhD candidate working under Dr. Abraham Badu-Tawiah at The Ohio State University. Since graduating from The University of Pittsburgh in 2016 with her B.S. in Chemistry, her current research is focused on developing a new ionization source for mass spectrometry using cellulose materials for applications in clinical diagnostics. At OSU, she serves as Chapter President of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) and as Vice President for the Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus. In these capacities, she is able to mentor students as they grow and develop during their programs, an effort that awarded her The Susan M. Hartmann Mentoring and Leadership Award in 2018. In her free time, she also co-runs a blog, #MacScientist, whose goal is to increase representation of black women in STEM fields, and more recently co-founded a #BlackInChem Twitter campaign, to amplify and celebrate Black chemists. Her advocacy work is documented on her professional website, Devinthechemist.com.
Zoi Sychev, PhD
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry based assay, clinical diagnostics, cancer and toxicology
Cancer Biologist with over 10 years of experience focused on developing strategies to characterize and identify molecular mechanisms constituting effective cancer immunotherapies. Lead investigator in all aspects of experimental design, execution, and data analyses for mass spectrometry based proteomics. My greatest motivation is to develop technologies that could be applicable across multiple fields working with multidisciplinary teams to culminate successful products and to improve healthcare by developing novel diagnostic platform, enhancing test-utilization, clinical toxicology, and data-driven clinical laboratory processes optimization.
Akash Talukder, Bio-Analytical Chemistry
University of Texas at Arlington
1e Interests: Proteomics and Bio-Analytical Mass Spectrometry Research
Akash Talukder joined as a Ph.D. student (Proteomics and Bio-Analytical Mass Spectrometry Research Group) in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington in August of 2019. He received his B.Sc (honors) and M.Sc degree in Chemistry from the University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Alpesh Thakker, PhD Biomedical Science
GSK medicine research
Experienced Mass spectrometrist and Biochemist with broad interest in understanding and solving biological problems through development of analytical techniques and tools
Margret Thorsteinsdottir, PhD
University of Iceland
1e Interests: Clinical Mass Spectrometry, Bioanalytical Chemistry, Precision Medicine, Multi-omics Technologies
Professor in Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iceland and R&D Director of ArcticMass LTd, Reykjavik, Iceland. Dr. Thorsteinsdóttir received her PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden in 1998. From 2000 to 2009 she was the managing director of Bioanalytical Laboratories at deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland. She has extensive experience in development of analytical methods for metabolite profiling and quantification of clinical biomarkers in various biofluids utilizing chemometrics with the goal of improved clinical management of patients towards personalized patient care.
Her current research interest includes studies of lipid metabolism in cancer cells and profiling plasma derived biomarkers for early detection of BRCA-related breast cancer. She is responsible for implementation of clinical mass spectrometry for support of diagnostics and therapeutic drug monitoring in collaboration with ArcticMass and the Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland with major focus on quantitative targeted proteomics for clinical diagnosis. She is a principal investigator of the Icelandic Research Rannis projects, profiling metabolites for breast cancer diagnosis and search for novel biomarkers for early breast cancer diagnosis by metabolomics. Dr. Thorsteinsdóttir is a principal investigator for the Marine Biotechnology ERA-net project CYNOBESITY and the Horizon 2020 project MossTech, with the main task to isolate, identify and structurally characterize bioactive compounds from cyanobacteria, Icelandic mosses and liverworts. She is one of the founders of Females in Mass Spectrometry (FeMS), she is a vice-leader of the working group clinical significance and applications of (epi)lipidomics in the pan-European network, EpiLipidNET and vice-chair of the Nordic Metabolomics Society.
Kwaku Twum, Ph.D
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Dr. Kwaku Twum is a postdoctoral fellow in clinical chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Science with a focus on health and environmental chemistry from Oakland University, Michigan. Before immigrating to the United States, he completed his bachelor and masters’ education in pharmaceutical chemistry, became a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, and a licensed pharmacist. Currently, he is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Association of Diagnostic and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM), and an active member of the Society of Young and Clinical Laboratorians (SYCL).
Kumari Ubhayasekera
Uppsala University
Unaiza Uzair, PhD
S.C. Department of Health & Environmental Control
1e Interests: Biosurveillance, Biomedical device development, Application of analytical techniques to clinical research
Unaiza Uzair earned her Doctorate in Chemistry from Clemson University in 2020 and currently she is working as an Analytical Chemist at the South Carolina Public Health Lab to develop methods for the opioids biosurveillance program. Dr. Uzair is passionate about lab to market research geared towards biomedical and biosurveillance applications. Her PhD research was focused on the development of an imaging technique (XELCI) and a pH sensor to detect and monitor implant associated infection. She worked on instrumentation development of a luminescence imaging system for noninvasive imaging of surface specific changes and as a noninvasive surface characterization technique. Dr. Uzair has a background in forensic science and quality control analysis, and is well versed in research design, data collection, analysis, and laboratory operations.
Tirsa van Duijl, MSc
Leiden University Medical Center
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry | Quantitative proteomics | Mass spectrometry | Method development | Food plating | Gardening
In 2017 I started my PhD research at the departments Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at the Leiden University Medical Center. Our research group develops LC-MRM-MS-based methods for protein quantitation in body fluids for clinical applications and, ultimately, routine patient care. My current research aims to improve the timely diagnosis of kidney injury using a multiplex proteomic test.
Translation of emering analytical strategies towards the clinical laboratory is my primary research interest. This includes non-invasive strategies such as cell-free DNA quantitation and multiplex mass spectrometry for marker quantitation in body fluids.
Prior to joining the group of prof. C.M. Cobbaert, I received training as a master student at the departments Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Clinical Chemistry of the Dutch Cancer Institute and the Medicinal Chemistry department of the Leiden Academic Centre of Drug Research.
Martijn van Faassen
University Medical Center Groningen
1e Interests: Clinical mass spectrometry
Peter Van Overwalle, BS
IVD Industry Consultant
1e Interests: Professional development, communication, collaboration, justification of outcomes and value of innovation to patient health.
Greetings! I have 30 years in classic sales and marketing with 16 years in IVD Medical Device marketing including the launch of novel Clinical LCMS systems globally. Now as a consultant beyond the traditional Life Sciences supplier realm, my passion is to help people be more relevant in communications and collaboration to advance healthcare. This is done primarily through professional development and mentoring of individuals, teams or entire institutions.
Let's connect on Linked In. I'm happy to share my perspective and experiences with you.
Mudita Vats
Maastricht University
1e Interests: Imaging Mass Spectrometry, Microbiology, Plant Science, Food science
Mudita is a PhD student at M4i, Maastricht University supervised by Ron M.A Heeren and Berta Cillero Pastor. She is a Marie Curie fellow working on FoodTraNet project where she is studying the influence of crop protection and soil nutrients on the molecular composition of grape vine leaves by comparing the metabolic differences before and after spraying (commercial versus biological spraying).
This work involves the use of DESI, MALDI-ToF, MALDI Biotyper, REIMS and LC-ESI-MS.
Anita Vinjamuri, Bachelors of Science in Chemistry
University of California Davis
1e Interests: Proteomics, Glycoproteomics, Glycomics
Anita graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from Texas A&M University where she worked on the optimization of ion emission for the enhanced performance of Time-of-Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. Following her passion for mass spectrometry, she continued her education at the University of California Davis under the supervision of Carlito Lebrilla. Here, Anita lead several mass spectrometry-based projects involving glycomic, proteomic, and glycoproteomic analysis of various biological samples including cells, feces, breast milk, serum and amniotic fluid. Anita is expecting to graduate with her PhD this year (2022) to pursue a position in bio-analytical chemistry.
Lindah Simuli Wabuyele, M.S, Ph.D
Quest Diagnostics
Salmika Wairegi, B.Sc
The Ohio State University
1e Interests: Analytical chemistry, bioanalytical chemistry, biochemistry, clinical research, mass spectrometry, ambient mass spectrometry
Salmika Wairegi is currently a 3rd year PhD Candidate in the Abraham Badu-Tawiah lab at the Ohio State University. She did her undergraduate degree at the University of Richmond and earned a B. Sc. in Biochemistry. She went on to enroll in the Chemistry graduate program at Ohio State University. Her research is in analytical chemistry with a focus in mass spectrometry (MS). Her current projects focus on clinical applications using a method called thread spray MS, a type of ambient MS, and using it for management of chronic diseases.
Meng Wang, PhD
Vancouver General Hospital
I am a Research & Development Scientist working at Vancouver General Hospital, specializing in mass spectrometry method development and quality improvement in the clinical laboratory.
I received my PhD in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, with a research focus on discovering biologically active natural products for potential drug candidates. Following the completion of my doctorate, I transitioned to the role of Research Scientist at IntelliSyn Pharma, where I used mass spectrometry and NMR techniques to analyze and characterize drug-like small molecules across various drug discovery and medicinal chemistry projects. After working in the pharmaceutical industry for two years, I started my postdoctoral training at the University of British Columbia (St Paul's Hospital). During this period, my research focused on the development, optimization, and validation of targeted mass spectrometry protein assays.
Ziyue Wang, MRes
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
1e Interests: LC-MS based plasma proteomics, absolute quantification
My name is Ziyue Wang, and I am a third-year PhD student at the institute for biochemistry at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. My PhD work is major focusing on absolute quantification in plasma proteomics and its application to clinics.
Elizabeth Want, PhD
Imperial College London
I am a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Spectroscopy in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction. I joined Imperial College in 2006 after working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. At Imperial College, I was initially a postdoctoral researcher for the Consortium for Metabonomic Toxicology (COMET) group.
My research focuses primarily on the development and application of novel mass spectrometry (MS) based techniques for metabolic phenotyping and on the fusion of mass spectrometric methods with chemometric analysis, which is currently a significant bottleneck in the analysis pipeline. Broadly, my research at Imperial College has involved the development, optimisation and application of UPLC-MS methodologies for the analysis of biological samples, largely in the context of metabolic phenotyping: serum, urine, tissue, amniotic fluid, and microdialysates. These developmental advances have resulted in shorter analysis times – and therefore higher sample throughput – key for large scale metabolic phenotyping studies. Peak detection and analytical reproducibility have been enhanced, improving metabolome coverage and the potential for biomarker identification and quantification.
I am applying these methods to biomedical research areas including toxicology, cardiovascular disease, neonatal disease and development, maternal exposures and effects on early childhood, and neurological diseases.
Idris Wazeerud-Din, PhD
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
James Weatherill, MChem, AMRSC
The University of Edinburgh
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry imaging, ion mobility spectrometry, and metabolomics
I am a 3rd year PhD student on the Precision Medicine DTP at the University of Edinburgh. My current research focuses on development and application of novel bio-analytical MS technologies (ion mobility and imaging) for the separation, detection and identification of small molecule metabolites involved in disease processes. This work is accompanied by handling large 3D data-sets for use in conjunction with other imaging modalities (e.g. histology). I am also interested in the development of derivatisation techniques and procedures for application in chromatographic and MS-based research. All of this work involves the integration of laboratory-based in vivo skills, bioinformatics, programming and multivariate analysis, for the development of better diagnostic and analytical techniques.
Ashley Woolfork, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania
1e Interests: mass spectrometry imaging, metabolomics, lipidomics, circadian clock
Ashley Woolfork is a first year Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. Her research uses mass spectrometry imaging to understand systems level changes in metabolism as it relates to sleep and circadian rhythms.
Kang Xiong-Hang, PhD
Hennepin County Medical Center
1e Interests: Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology
I am currently a clinical chemistry fellow training under Drs. Amy Saenger and Fred Apple at Hennepin County Medical Center/Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, MN. My current research projects involve (1) developing a LC-MS/MS method for quantification of a panel of anti-epileptic drugs and (2) validating the analytical and clinical characteristics of a novel high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I point-of-care assay.
Ethan Yang, PhD
Johns Hopkins University, MSACL Early Career Network
1e Interests: MALDI imaging, Multi-modal imaging, MRI imaging, boimedical imaging cancer research
Ethan Yang is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kristine Glunde's Lab in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University. His current research focuses on combining imaging mass spectrometry with other biomedical imaging approaches to provide a more holistic approach to reserach and diagnosis. He completed his PhD under Prof. Pierre Chaurand at the University of Montreal working on elaborating new techniques to enhance the sensitivity and selectivity of MALDI-TOF imaging mass spectrometry. He obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry at McGill University. He is a founding member of the MSACL Early Career Network (MSACL ECN) and is now the interim Chair of the Asia-Pacific Region.
Matthew Yang
UC Santa Cruz
Richard Yost, PhD
University of Florida
1e Interests: analytical mass spec, metabolomics
Dr. Yost is the University Professor and Head of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Florida. He is also director of the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics (SECIM) and of NIH’s Metabolomics Consortium Coordinating Center (M3C). He is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of analytical chemistry, particularly tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). His research has been recognized with the ASMS Award for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, the MSACL Award for Distinguished Contribution to Clinical Mass Spectrometry, and the Florida Academy of Sciences Medal. Dr. Yost currently serves as President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS).
Fereshteh Zandkarimi, PhD
Columbia University
1e Interests: Lipidomics, Ferroptosis, LC-MS, Mass Spectrometry Imaging
Qing Zhang, Master
University of Delaware
1e Interests: Proteomics, Data Science, Mass spectrometry, Biopharm, Biomarker, Clinical diagnosis
After graduated from undergraduate school, has worked nearly 11 years in mass spectrometry based proteomics, as an application scientist. Now moving to data science and focusing on mass spectrometry data processing and mining in the area of clinical diagnosis.
Guanshi Zhang, PhD
University of Texas Health San Antonio
1e Interests: Mass spectrometry imaging, diabetic complications, bioactive lipid signaling
Dr. Zhang was trained in metabolomics in his early career, but during his postdoctoral training at The University of California San Diego, his research expanded to mitochondrial biology of diabetic complications and aging-associated diseases, as well as mass spectrometry imaging-based spatial metabolomics/lipidomics. Dr. Zhang is interested in how hyperglycemia/aging leads to cellular dysregulation in different organ systems. His research aims to develop interventions that could ameliorate or reverse the adverse effects of diabetes and aging.
Xueyun Zheng, PhD
Pacific Northwest National Lab
1e Interests: Metabolomics; lipidomics; New MS technology development and applications in clinical diagnostics
I am a bioanalytical chemist with more than 10 years's mass spectrometry experience. My research focuses on application novel ion mobility-mass spectrometry technique to multi-omics to understand important disease state and clinical applications.