Dr. Arthur S. Edison - NMR probes and metabolomics

Associate Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Director of Chemistry & Biology
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
University of Florida

Art Edison received has B.S. in chemistry from the University of Utah and Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (John Markley and Frank Weinhold, advisors). His postdoc was at the University of Wisconsin in Zoology where he studied the neurobiology of a parasitic nematode, Ascaris suum.

At the University of Florida and NHMFL, Dr. Edison develops improved NMR probes and uses them in metabolomic and natural product analysis of nematodes, insects, and other sources. His major focus is the identification of compounds present in very low abundance that require high sensitivity NMR.

Dr. Edison will discuss different types of NMR probes that can be used for different types of analysis. He will review different NMR approaches to studying complex mixtures and will focus on strengths and limitations of heteronuclear approaches. New NMR probe designs for optimal heteronuclear studies will be discussed.

Dr. Fang Fang, Birk Shuetz

Fully Automated Fruit Juice Screening
Quality control is a constant challenge in food and life science industry with respect to contaminations and frauds like wrong labeling of the product type or the type and origin of ingredients.

On basis of a fully automated 1H-NMR screening method for fruit juices, the secure identification and quantification within such a mixture with high correlation to reference methods will be shown. Furthermore, statistical methods are presented for classification (e.g. origin of the fruit) or non-targeted verification (detection of even unknown contaminations).

Requirements to obtain meaningful high quality Metabonomics NMR-Data
NMR is unique with respect to analytical reproducibility enabling even inter-instrumental comparisons and statistical analyses. To obtain optimal performance in reproducibility, it is important to focus on aspects like experimental design, sample preparation, measurement and processing. Typical adjustments needed are amongst others for absolute temperature, temperature stability, pH, reproducible shim performance, solvent suppression, flat baseline and correct phasing. In large Metabonomics studies, all these adjustments must work in automation to allow unattended measurement and processing of large sample series.

Typical absolutely standardized working procedures are explained, which also allow exchange of data amongst different working groups.

Dr. Darryl J. Adamko, MD, FRCPC

Associate Professor,
University of Alberta
Noninvasive assessment of airway diseases: Metabolomic profiling of urine using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

Dr. Adamko will be speaking on the potential utility of NMR in the medical field as it pertains to the diagnosis of respiratory diseases. The title of his presentation is "Noninvasive assessment of airway diseases: Metabolomic profiling of urine using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

Ryan T. McKay

Scientific Director, NANUC, University of Alberta

While one-dimensional NMR spectroscopy is conceptually the simplest to understand, the efficient acquisition of this type of spectra can be the most demanding on the software, hardware, and especially the NMR operator.

Presentations for this session will focus on step-by-step practical methods for calibrating and optimizing NMR parameters. Correct procedures for deuterium locking, shimming, and solvent suppression will be emphasized and demonstrated. The importance of too often overlooked NMR aspects will be detailed and the consequences on metabonomics NMR output will be shown.

Deryck Webb

NMR Technologist - National High Field NMR Centre (NANUC)

Deryck Webb has been in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of all NANUC systems for the past 8 years. He has been on the front line of development for the Varian 768AS high through-put robot for the past 2 years. After some initial growing pains and a few technical difficulties the 768AS is shaping up to be the answer to the high number of samples associated with metabolomics research. Mr. Webb will highlight some of the features of the system and demonstrate its function.

Shana Regush

Senior Lab Manager - Magnetic Resonance Diagnostic Center
Scientific Director, NANUC, University of Alberta

Shana Regush has been with the Magnetic Resonance Diagnostic Center (MRDC) for 4 years and is responsible for sample collection and preparation. Ms. Regush will discuss the protocol used by the MRDC for NMR sample collection and preparation.

Joseph DiMartino

Technical Support Specialist - Advanced Chemistry Development

Joseph DiMartino received his BSc. in Chemistry at the University of Winnipeg, and his MSc. in Chemistry at the University of Windsor. Joseph worked as a process R & D chemist at Apotex Pharmachem Inc. for two years. He is currently a technical support specialist and technical trainer at Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. (ACD/Labs), where he has trained several major pharmaceutical companies.

The presentation will cover the basic functionality of the ACD/NMR Processor software (i.e. importing data, processing a FID, peak picking, integrating and extracting coupling patterns and constants). The talk will also focus on how to automatically apply intelligent bucketing for Metabonomics data.

David Chang

Director of Products and Services, Chenomx Inc.

Dr. David Chang is the Manager of Products and Services at Chenomx Inc. David has been involved with the development of NMR Suite since 2003, and has more recently been responsible for Chenomx’s contract services business. Prior to working at Chenomx, David received a BASc and MASc from the University of Waterloo in Chemical Engineering. David also received a PhD from the University of Alberta in Computer Process Control specializing in metabolomics applications. David’s expertise is in signal processing, multivariate statistics and mathematical modeling.

The presentation will describe Chenomx’s experiences in performing multi-sample metabolomics projects. Description will be given of various key workflow considerations for consistency and quality of analysis. An overview of the different tools needed to help extract useful information out of the data will be given along with a look at some advanced techniques. David will also share some of Chenomx’s experiences and challenges in working with specific sample types and in working in various application areas.