22nd International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC2018), Florence, Italy

Recently, Ali Azimi had the privilege to attend the 22nd International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC2018), in Florence, Italy.
“The IMSC is the largest international conference on mass spectrometry and allied topics with a history of more than fifty years. The venue of the conference which was held from 25-31 August 2018 was the historic “Fortezza da Basso”, a masterpiece of Renaissance military architecture, built in 1534-1537.
The IMSC2018 had brought together a broad spectrum of scientists and mass-spectrometrist from across the globe. Hundreds of presenters presented their works in the forms of oral or poster on topics ranging from recent developments in the area of mass spectrometry techniques to the application of these technique in new fields of research including cancer. It was impressing to see the vast amount of mass spectrometry-based researches happening across the globe.
My contribution to the conference was to firstly present my work describing the efficient and non-invasive method of Tape Stripping (TS) for the collection and extraction of proteins from the stratum corneum of patients with actinic keratosis and its use for subsequent diagnostic biomarker analysis using mass spectrometry-based proteomic techniques. My second presentation at the IMSC2018 described proteomic investigation of actinic keratosis, Bowen’s disease and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma using the SWATH approach. The presentations were well-received by the audiences in the conference and led to some good discussions with other researchers. While my works involved unique approaches in studying non-melanoma skin lesions at the protein level, equally it was exciting to see how other researchers have used different mass spectrometry techniques for molecular profiling studies of different cancers which could be adopted in skin cancers as well.
I found that, among others, lipidomics, and proteomic studies of different lesions using the MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) were highly noticeable. In MALDI imaging, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization is used to move a thin tissue section in two dimensions while recording the mass spectrum. The advantage with this technique is that it measures the distribution of a large number of analytes at one time without destroying the sample. A study presented by another group at the IMSC2018 attempted to use this technique for molecular profiling of skin samples. Majority of the molecules, although not many, the researchers had measured in the stratum corneum and epidermis layers were mainly lipids and other metabolites. In their studies, a number of proteins and lipids were measured in the dermis layer of the skin. With further improvements and optimisation studies, MALDI-MS has great potential for molecular profiling studies of skin cancer lesions, especially the small lesions where collecting sufficient material for LC-based mass spectrometry is a limiting factor.
In addition, lipidomics which is a subset of metabolomics, is an emerging field in biomedical research. Lipidomics is the large-scale study of pathways and networks of cellular lipids in biological systems. While genomic and/or proteomic studies alone or when combined, provide useful information about the behaviour of cancer lesions at the molecular level, but they don’t provide a complete understanding of the lesions. Lipids play important roles in cellular functions including cell proliferation and cell death since they are involved in chemical-energy storage, cellular signalling and cell–cell interactions. Interestingly, at IMSC2018, AB Sciex presented one of their recent works involving the application of SWATH acquisition method for a comprehensive lipidomic studies of human samples. Our team is already utilising the SWATH-proteomic technique in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. The application of multi-omics approaches towards cancer lesions which include genomics, proteomics (including phosphoproteomics) and lipidomics will surely provide a better understanding of the disease, aiding diagnosis and effective therapeutic interventions.
My travel to attend the IMSC2018 was funded by the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation (IMSF) Nico Nibbering Travel Award and the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry Travel Award. We are thankful for their generous support which surely enriched my experience with more information, knowledge and confidence