Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced that it is the lead sponsor of the upcoming Uppsala Conference on Electron Capture and Transfer Dissociation.
The conference, organised by Dr Joshua J Coon from the departments of chemistry and biomolecular chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, from 7-10 December 2008.
Electron capture dissociation (ECD) and electron transfer dissociation (ETD) are related techniques that help scientists carrying out protein research obtain a greater understanding of proteins and their functions in biological systems.
Using mass spectrometers with ECD or ETD capabilities, researchers can accurately identify proteins and pinpoint how and where they are modified.
These modifications can have profound effects on the biological functions of proteins and provide critical insight into differences between healthy and diseased organisms.
The conference's scientific programme will focus on four major themes: ion-electron interaction fundamentals, instrument development, applications in biology and related bio-informatics.
Highlights will include presentations from the conference's founder, Prof Roman Zubarev of Uppsala University in Sweden, Dr Steve Gygi of Harvard Medical School, and Dr Jim Stephenson of the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina.
The meeting's host, Dr Joshua Coon, is a pioneer in combining ETD with tandem mass spectrometry, in particular the Thermo Scientific Ltq Orbitrap.
He uses the technique in his research of developmental biology, where the combination of high resolution and accurate mass is pivotal in achieving definitive protein characterisation.
Amy Zumwalt, proteomics marketing programmes manager for life sciences mass spectrometry at Thermo Fisher Scientific, said: 'ETD is a groundbreaking tool in mass spectrometry and it is vital that scientific information is shared among the community working in this growing field.
'At least 150 research groups are using ETD to solve biological problems they were unable to solve before.' Thermo Fisher Scientific offers several mass spectrometers with ETD capability.
It also provides software designed specifically to analyse data produced by ETD analyses.
The Uppsala meeting will feature talks from Andreas Huhmer and John Syka of Thermo Fisher Scientific, who will be presenting the latest information on the application of ETD on the Thermo Scientific Ltq XL and Ltq Orbitrap XL mass spectrometers.
The meeting is being held at Madison's Monona Terrace Community and Conference Center.
The deadline for registration is 14 November.
