AIMS 2014

Synopsis

The third Advanced Imaging Mass Spectrometry (AIMS) course was held at Vanderbilt April 22-25, 2014.  It was again designed for mid-level to senior investigators and was limited to no more than two individuals from a single institution.

The workshop consisted of lectures and hands-on workshops and covered topics included sample preparation, matrix application, practical and advanced instrumentation, and computational aspects.  New this year was the addition of several roundtable discussion sessions, which allowed attendees to focus on topic-specific challenges and questions related to protein/peptide imaging, small molecule imaging and lipid imaging.  Two tutorials were also held on the Monday prior to the course, one an Introduction to Histology and Microscopy, and the other an Introduction to Mass Spectrometry.  These were designed to allow attendees less experienced in one of the two disciplines to get a more “equal footing” with the rest of the class.  On the third day of the course, 2.5 hrs were set aside for vendor demonstrations where participants were able to interact closely with the companies that provide instrumentation that supports imaging mass spectrometry.  Later that evening, all attendees were invited to the Bridge Building downtown for dinner.  Live entertainment was provided by Street Corner Symphony, a Nashville-based a capella group.  Buses shuttled people back to Vanderbilt or their hotel.  The conference concluded the next day with lectures on data processing and making the technology more accessible to clinical labs, as well as the roundtable discussion on lipid imaging.

Itinerary

View the 2014 Course Schedule
View the 2014 Final Agenda

Attendees

Twenty-nine people registered and attended the course.  The attendees were from academic (70%), industrial (25%), and government (5%) laboratories.  Eleven representatives from companies that sponsored the course also attended.