As 2022 is drawing to a close, let's look back at some of the moments, events and conferences that shaped the past 12 months. This year ProteoFormiX traveled to Australia, the USA, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, France and China - albeit sometimes digitally from our offices in Belgium.
Jan. 1: Publication in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Volume 132, January 2022, Pages 542-552.
[Hippocampal neuropathology in suicide: Gaps in our knowledge and opportunities for a breakthrough.] Great to see ProteoFormiX' MSHC technology in our first published paper with Prof. Dick Swaab at The Netherlands Brain Bank. Read the full article here.
Suicide is a major global hazard. There is a need for increasing suicide awareness and effective and evidence-based interventions, targeting both suicidal ideation and conduct. However, anti-suicide pharmacological effects are unsatisfactory. The human hippocampus is vulnerable to neuropsychiatric damages and subsequently releases psychobiological signals. Human hippocampal studies of suicide completers have shown mechanistic changes in neurobiology, which, however, could not reflect the neuropathological ‘fingerprints’ of fatal suicide ideations and suicide attempts. In this review, we provide several leading theories of suicide, including the serotoninergic system, Wnt pathway and brain-derived neurotrophic factor/tropomyosin receptor kinase B signalling, and discuss the evidence for their roles in suicide and treatment. Moreover, the cognitive dysfunctions associated with suicide risk are discussed, as well as the novel evidence on cognitive therapies that decrease suicidal ideation. We highlight the need to apply multi-omics techniques (including single-nucleus RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry histochemistry) on hippocampal samples from donors who died by suicide or legal euthanasia, to clarify the aetiology of suicide and propose novel therapeutic strategies.
April 05-08: 12th Annual Conference of the Association for Mass Spectrometry & Advances in the clinical lab at Monterey (USA)
ProteoFormiX held a podium presentation alongside German Gomez and Daniel Kratz. We got to share our MSHC concept with the international Clinical Laboratory community.
May 08-13: 14th Australian Peptide Conference at Gold Coast (AUS)
ProteoFormiX gave an oral presentation [Single Cell Peptidomics in Homo sapiens FFPE biobanks by Mass Spectrometry HistoChemistry] and took this lovely present home.
May 16: University of Sydney Charles Perkins Centre Seminar Series at Sydney, Queensland (AUS)
ProteoFormiX was invited to hold a seminar [Mass Spectrometry HistoChemistry: A novel spatial multi-omics technology for biomarker discovery in Homo sapiens FFPE biobanks]. It was energizing to meet visionary scientists and plan future projects in which ProteoFormiX will play a role.
May 24: A lab visit in our JLABS@BE office from Nerida Scott, Head of J&J Innovation EMEA.
May 31: Interview for FOKUS R&D (De Standaard)
[Hoe het ‘contextualiseren’ van eiwitten voor medische doorbraken zorgt.] Read the full article in Dutch here.
June 05-09: 70th Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics at Minneapolis (USA)
3 poster presentations on ProteoFormiX projects and software development.
June 10-11: European Dry Eye Society Congress (EUDEC 2022) at Paris (FR)
We did a poster presentation [A repository of human tear proteoforms and metabolites as treasure cove of easily accessible translational biomarker candidates].
We were invited to hold a lecture [Mass Spectrometry Histochemistry: a novel spatial multi omics technology with single cell resolution].
June 16: Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological research at Milano (IT)
ProteoFormiX was invited to hold a seminar.
Aug. 21: American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2022 at Chicago (USA)
We participated in an (on-line) oral presentation [Mass spectrometry histochemistry: Novel single cell spatial multi-omics imaging approach for molecular biomarker discovery from histopathologically documented FFPE samples].
Aug. 24: Live AIMS Conference at Bejing (CN)
ProteoFormiX held an (on-line) oral presentation [AP-MALDI MS Histochemistry for disease biomarker discovery in patient samples archived at tissue banks].
Aug. 31: International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC 2022) at Maastricht (NL)
ProteoFormiX did a poster presentation [Mass spectrometry histochemistry for single cell neuropeptide imaging of the FFPE human brain. Complementing the human brain atlas].
Sep. 01-02: ItPA, HPS and SePA XVI International Congress 2022 at Bolzano (IT)
ProteoFormiX had the opportunity of chairing a session and holding the keynote lecture [Peptide and metabolite biomarker discovery from FFPE tissue banks]. Always a pleasure to see young scientists enthusiastic about their research!
Oct. 07: 24th Belgian Society for Mass Spectrometry meeting at Braine l'Alleud (BE)
ProteoFormiX did an oral presentation and 2 poster presentations.
Oct. 26-30: Trip to South Africa with Per Andrén and his Uppsala University group with amongst other stops a Mass Spectrometry Imaging workshop in Johannesburg at the University of Witwatersrand, hosted by Sooraj Baijnath and Aletta Millen.
Nov. 15: free virtual event hosted by Mass Spectrometry & Advances in the Clinical Lab, FeMS, and Metabolomics Association of North America (USA)
ProteoFomiX held an online lecture [Archived FFPE tissues for MS based disease biomarker discovery? Not as incompatible as one may think.]
Nov. 30- Dec. 03: 34th International Tandem MS Workshop at Lake Louise (CAN).
ProteoFormiX was a proud sponsor for the legendary 34th Annual Tandem Mass Spectrometry Workshop at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta from November 30 to December 3, 2022. The workshop focused on scientific exchange and dissemination of technical aspects of tandem mass spectrometry.
After a year around the globe, we are looking forward to uncovering what 2023 has in store. Happy New Year from all of us at ProteoFormiX!
Images via Peter Verhaert and Vektor by pch.vector on Freepik.