Small molecules are the active ingredients in thousands of pharmaceuticals, the metabolites formed in the mammalian system biology and the novel chemical structures of tomorrow's drugs
Scientists from P and G Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca, Wyeth Research, University of California, Iowa State, Purdue University and Nottingham Trent University, among others, will convene on Roger Williams College Campus for the second annual Conference on Small Molecule Science (Cosmos), to be held 8-11 August 2005 in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA.
Cosmos is a non-commercial event focusing on the practical aspects of small molecule science.
Small molecules are the active ingredients in thousands of pharmaceuticals, the metabolites formed in the mammalian system biology and the novel chemical structures of tomorrow's drugs.
With a majority of conferences emphasising proteomics and protein characterisation, a need existed to create a self-contained conference aimed at knowledge sharing, information exchange and improved understanding of this burgeoning field, says Waters.
William Farrell, manager of high throughput analysis and purification at Pfizer Global Research and Development in San Diego, California, and Michael Balogh, principal scientist and manager of LC/MS technology development at Waters Corporation are this year's co-organisers.
According to Balogh: "Small molecules have always been an exceptionally large portion of our work, so the intent behind Cosmos is to improve our understanding in order to apply small molecule analysis and purification techniques across the industrial, environmental and pharmaceutical sectors".
Last year's Cosmos attracted a cross-section of top scientists from industry, research and academia.
Based on their feedback, one-third of the attendees indicated they would volunteer to organise and contribute to future events and 98% indicated they would encourage their colleagues to attend.
In order to bring Cosmos to the next level, the current programme committee not only sourced this year's programme to two co-organisers but also expanded the list of founding sponsors to include Waters, IBM, Agilent Technologies, and Thermo Electron.
Posters and workshops emphasising functional experience, academic research and novel techniques will take place throughout the three-day event.
Among the topics to be addressed are the following.
Integrated approach to HPLC method development: using all the tools in the chromatographer's tool box.
Imaging mass spectrometry for direct tissue analysis of pharmaceuticals.
The current state of the electronic laboratory notebook.
New classes of chiral selectors for LC, SFC, CE, and GC.
Alternatives to traditional LC/MS.
The workshops will focus on biomarkers, statistics and validation, purification strategies, and compound stability and quantitation.
the state of information technology in the laboratory.
Two webcasts, co-sponsored by LCGC North America and Spectroscopy magazines, will also be available for broadcast after the close of the conference.
The sessions on problem solving in metabolism and recent work in analytical chemistry include presentations on the fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment, and how to combine novel ionisation and separation techniques such as ion mobility with desorption electrospray ionisation.
The webcasts will be offered as real time simultaneous and later rebroadcasts.
Each year's conference proceedings are mailed to the attendees and available for download from the Cosmos website.
