Advanced Techniques in Mass Spectrometry Workshop

Who Should Attend: Clinicians, scientists and technical staff working in hospital clinical biochemistry laboratories. This course is designed for those working in clinical laboratories who use LC-MS/MS, either at a basic level or with involvement in method development and validation. It will also be of interest to those leading clinical laboratory services and those involved in interpretation of results. 

Description. This workshop is designed for those working in Clinical Laboratories. The session will focus on the analysis of immunosuppressive drugs in whole blood and plasma and provide practical advice on developing and maintaining a clinical therapeutic drug monitoring service. Consideration will also be given to the use of Hydrophillic Interaction Chromatography for antiviral drug monitoring and screening for the use or abuse of pain relief medication. Parallels will be drawn for the analysis of other drugs and hormones in biological matrices and future developments will be briefly discussed. Emphasis will be given to issues encountered by the presenter when developing and maintaining a clinical service.  This workshop will be split into two halves. The first will deal with general aspects, the second with issues encountered in the development of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods using LC-MS/MS. 

Section 1 
1) Brief introduction 2) Mass spectrometry basics for the clinical lab 3) Types of mass spectrometry found in the clinical laboratory and the range of applications for LC-MS/MS 4) What are the advantages (and disadvantages) in LC-MS/MS in the clinical laboratory? 5) Method development and validation 6) Routine operation – what do we need to look for? 

Section 2 
1) Immunosuppressive drug LC-MS/MS methods – on-line extraction versus protein precipitation. 2) Interference from metabolites 3) Interference from matrix components 4) Interference from closely related compounds 5) What do clinicians need to know when moving to LC-MS/MS? 6) What the future might bring

NOTE:This workshop will be free for the delegates registered for Advanced Techniques & Applications of Mass Spectrometry Conference.

Workshop Tutor Nigel Brown Consultant Clinical Scientist, Wansbeck General Hospital