Pittcon Announces Highlights of Waters Symposium

The Pittcon Organizing Committee has announced the details of the 2014 James L. Waters Annual Symposium. This year’s symposium recognizes the commercialization of MALDI-TOF.

The James L. Waters Annual Symposium is a unique component of the Pittcon Technical Program. The event offers an opportunity to explore the origin, development, implementation, and commercialization of established and hugely significant scientific instrumentation. The objective of the symposium is to recognize workers and the development and application of instrumentation by preserving the early and in some cases, more mature history of the important contributions, as well as the cooperation between inventors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and marketing organizations.

The speakers chosen are pioneers in the development and commercialization of MALDI-TOF and are uniquely qualified to discuss the topic. In addition the presenters will also discuss the current state of the technique and its future. Application areas include genomics, proteomics and other ‘omics; biomedical; biotechnology; and bioanalytical.

The symposium speakers and their session titles are as follows:

• Peter Roepstorff, University of Southern Denmark, Franz Hillenkamp, University of Muenster, “Peptide and Protein Mass Spectrometry Before MALDI and ESI, the Pioneering Period”
• Marvin Vestal, Virgin Instrument Corporation, “Development of TOF-MS from Intellectual Curiosity to Practical Technique.”
• Richard Caprioli, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, “MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry: A Next Generation Molecular Mapping Technology for Biological and Clinical Research”
• Randall Nelson, Arizona State University, “Using High Throughput Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay (MSIA) in Biomarker Development"
• Franz Hillenkamp, University of Muenster, To Be Announced.