Evolution not revolution but interesting all the same

Report on the 57th ASMS Conference, Philadelphia, Pa, USA May 31st - June 4th and the 18th IMSC, Bremen, Germany, September 1st - 4th 2009.

Once every 3 years both of the major meetings aimed at the mass spectrometry community are held. Not necessarily a bad situation but in days of reduced funds available both for practicising scientists and commercial activists it could lead to a choice of which to attend, however both organising committees have taken a pragmatic view on this and focussed on making the meetings affordable since without the endusers the commercial side of the proceedings will not contribute to the same degree. Members of the American Society for Mass

Spectrometry (ASMS) were charged only $150 and this no doubt helped the attendance of conferees to be almost similar in number, ca 6,500, to the 2008 number.

The number of exhibitors was slightly down but the corporate hospitality suite numbers reduced from 25 to 18 reflected some cost saving by the manufacturers and service providers. The International Mass Spectroscopy (IMSC) had a slightly higher tariff for attendees but early bird discounting no doubt helped the record breaking attendance to reach excess of 2,600 and a very healthy exhibition to be presented. The meeting was held in the city which houses the manufacturing bases of two of the major players in the Mass Spectrometry world,

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Bruker Daltronik GmbH so the meeting was never going to suffer from a lack of ‘gravitas’. The high proportion of students present at both meetings was a healthy sign that the thirst for knowledge continues and, particularly within the life sciences application areas, there is growing need for techniques that can help the –omics scientists. Another application field which has risen from the pack is that of the use within Clinical applications and as a diagnostic tool. It will be some time before the technique of LC/MS/MS becomes a regular tool within the armoury of the clinicians on a regular basis but the creation of dedicated products and supporting software options by most of the major manufactures recognises that here lies potential for the technique of Mass Spectroscopy. The sheer number of different oral presentations, workshops tutorials, vendor presentations, exhibitor offerings and, at ASMS almost 3000 posters (almost 1200 at IMSC) means that attendees really do have to engage in some selective and well thought out time management in advance.