Biacore International has announced that its 2002 international series of biosensor symposia successfully brought together over 600 leading scientists to share and enhance their knowledge
Biacore International has announced that its 2002 international series of biosensor symposia successfully brought together over 600 leading scientists to share and enhance their knowledge of Biacore's Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technology for analysis of biomolecular interactions.
First introduced in 1994 with the 1st BIAsymposium, held in Stockholm, Sweden, Biacore symposia have since become regular and growing events around the world.
Combining plenary sessions, with talks by some of the worlds leading specialists in the field, as well as poster sessions and practical workshops, the symposia have become a major resource for scientists using or thinking of using Biacore's SPR technology.
In 2002, the Biacore symposia focusing on the future of biosensor technology were held in North America, Australia, Japan and Korea.
They have all provided highly useful forums for scientists from industry and academia to present and discuss new and exciting applications of SPR technology and its interface with other technologies in the Life Science, Drug Discovery and food analysis fields of research.
The symposia series particularly focused on applications in drug discovery, small molecule screening, membrane interactions, neuroscience and cancer research, as well as proteomics applications including integration with Mass Spectrometry (MS) and applications in food quality and safety testing.
The broad range of topical applications, serves as an indicator to the now very wide spread global usage of Biacore's SPR technology. Presenting and sharing their expertise in these areas were industry leaders and eminent scientists from many leading organisations including, F.Hoffman-La Roche Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), Tokyo Metropolitan University, Korean Institute for Science and Technology (KIST) and Cambridge University.
Dr Bob Fisher, Head of the Protein Chemistry Laboratory, SAIC Frederick Inc, commented, "The Biacore symposia have provided me with excellent networking opportunities, giving an ideal platform to exchange ideas and see how other scientists are applying SPR technology.
In fact, such is the value of this technology, in terms of the detailed information on molecular interactions that can be obtained in a single experiment, we have recently organised a similar SPR focused symposium at the NCI." The worldwide symposia series kicked off in spring this year in Chicago, US, moving to the Asia-Pacific region in the autumn.
With over 450 Biacore systems installed in Japan alone, the audiences were significant in this region.
Seoul, Korea played host to the 2nd Drug Discovery Symposium in conjunction with Korean Drug Research Association, followed by the 6th Biacore Symposium in Kyoto, Japan.
The 4th Australian Biacore Symposium in Melbourne brought an end to 2002's highly educational series and included a keynote presentation from Dr David Myszka, Center for Biomolecular Interaction Analysis, University of Utah, USA on small molecule screening using Biacore S51.
In recognition of the value of information available, scientists will soon be able to access online the expertise in SPR shared at all worldwide symposia dating back to 1998 at www.biacore.com, where a dedicated area will hold abstracts and programmes from all previous symposia. Clive Seymour, VP and Head of Life Science Research Business Unit commented, "For those unable to attend the Biacore Symposia we hold each year around the world, the new website section will provide an opportunity to share the experience and also profit from the high level scientific content that these events generate."
