C.N.R. Area di Ricerca di Padova, Padova, Italy

The 8th Informal Meeting on Mass Spectrometry organized by the Mass Spectrometry Service of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (C.N.R) was held at the Area di Ricerca di Padova between 7 and 1 3 May 1990. The pre- sented talks and experimental demon- stration sessions covered various areas of mass spectrometry including recent instrumental developments, fundamen-

tal aspects, medical and environmental applications. Over 1.50 scientists from the United States, East and West Europe took part among whom were Prof R . G . Cooks of Purdue University, USA, Prof D. E . Games and Dr A. G. Brenton of Swansea University College, UK, and Dr J . F. J. Todd of Canterbury University, UK. These four invited speakers presented review lectures on Ion trap as high-performance tandem mass spectrometers, Monitoring of bioreactors using membrane interfaces, Recent development in combined chromatographic/mass spectrometric techniques, Design and performance of energy-resolving tandem mass spectro- meters and Dynamically programmed scans used to investigate the character- istics of the ion trap.

A number of contributions on charge- spray ionization, translational energy spectroscopy and ion traps were also given by the members of the mass spec-

trometry group of the Italian Chemical Society responsible for the organization of this annual meeting. Furthermore a number of experimental sessions were arranged during which the wide range of experimental set-ups at the C.N.R. were used by various participants to carry out their own measurements. Among the instruments were the ion- trap mass spectrometer (Finnigan MAT, Cincinnati, OH, USA), super- critical flow chromatograph (Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy) and the ZAB-2F mass spectrometer (VG Instruments, Danvers, MA, USA).

DR M. HAMDAN Servizio Spettrometria di Massa

C.N.R. Area di Ricerca Corso Stati Uniti 4

35020 Padova Italy

May, 1990

Tucson, Arizona, USA Unofficial attendance at the recent American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference in Tucson, Arizona, USA, from 3-8 June, 1990, was a record high. So was the tempera- ture (at 10.5-110°F average daily maxi- mum)!

The meeting featured about 800 talks and posters (not reviewed here) and six plenary lectures. Professor Franz Hillenkamp from Universitat Muenster led off with some spectacular recent successes of his matrix-assisted UV laser desorption/ionization combined with time-of-flight detection to yield essentially fragment-free singly charged ions of intact macromolecules. His examples included proteins (e.g., anti- bodies a t 150,000 u), glycoproteins, membrane proteins, peptide digests (as a means of obtaining sequence infor- mation), underivatized oligosacchar- ides, and even oligonucleotides. In addition, he was able to show similar

results with an IR laser, by switching to an IR-absorbant matrix. Hillenkamp speculated that the matrix (namely, a highly absorbent compound present in -1000-fold excess over the analyte of interest) functions in two ways: (a) to keep individual macromolecules separ- ated from each other to prevent aggre- gation during the desorption process and (b) as a sink for absorption of laser light so that the macromolecule’s sur- roundings (i.e., the matrix) are heated and vaporized quickly without signifi- cant damage to the macromolecule itself.

The second plenary lecture was by Richard E. Smalley (recently elected to the USA National Academy of Sciences) from Rice University, Houston, TX, USA, on “FT-ICR and the Future of Cluster Surface Science”. The text of his talk is reproduced in part in a recent review in Science 248, 118G 88 (1990). Briefly, he showed that mass spectra of fragile atomic clusters could be obtained by laser desorption of neutrals, which on leaving the surface are immediately entrained in a super- sonic helium beam, laser-ionized, and then injected into a six-sided cylindrical ion trap for detection by Fourier trans- form ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. In particular, Smalley was able to demonstrate startlingly large differences in reactivities of nio-

bium clusters differing in size by only a single atom. Even more surprising, he was able to show that niobium forms two clusters (which he calls “vanilla” and “chocolates”) with the same number of atoms but with differing geometry (as judged by their different reactivity).

Two plenary lectures on more general topics were presented by Professor Carl Djerassi of Stanford University and Professor Charles Cantor of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Djerassi’s dis- coursed widely, including his recent novel: Cantor’s Dilemma, Facts and Fiction. Cantor spoke on the scientific and financial aspects of the human genome project.

A plenary lecture was then presented by Professor Ronald Macfarlane of Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, on the occasion of his receipt of the first annual ASMS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry, for his development of plasma desorption mass spectrometry, Macfarlane began by describing PDMS as the first chapter in a book which now contains many methods (e.g., FAB, laser desorption, electrospray, etc.) for generating molecular or pseudomolecu- lar ions from macromolecules. H e then gave a history of the path by which he devised the PDMS method from prior

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unrelated (but seminal) nuclear chemistry experiments. He then showed numerous examples of the success of PDMS, which remains as one of the best methods for obtaining useful mass spectra of very large macromolecules.

The final plenary lecture was by Dr. Sanford Markey from the USA National Institutes of Health, on the detection and characterization of three unrelated compounds which affect nerve and brain function. In particular, he gave a fascinating history of the dis- covery and determination of mechanism of action of “MPTP”, the drug which induces Parkinson like symptoms in otherwise normal human subjects. This sort of work involves development of specific and sensitive mass spec-

trometry-based assays for the com- pounds and metabolites of interest and requires synthesis of isotopically labeled species and development of suitable separation and mass spectrometric com- binations.

Workshops also featured heavily in the programme of events and were held on the second half of each day along with the poster sessions. The topics covered the popular areas of quantitative analy- sis by LC/MS and peptide and protein sequencing, as well as a heavy emphasis on computer and environmental appli- cations. Other workshops covered recording the history of mass spectro- metry and advice for academic labora- tory managers. In addition, special interest groups were organised.

The symposia arranged were of a high standard and one on the state-of-the-art in mass analysers revealed the incred- ible rate at which instrumental develop- ment has proceeded in recent years. Amongst many achievements, the most notable were the emergence of focal- plane instruments and the continuing maturity of the ion trap.

Future ASMS meetings will be held in Nashville (19-24 May 1991), Washington DC (1-5 June 1992) and Las Vegas ( 6 - 1 1 June 1993).

RCM Editorial Team June 1990

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