Tecan recently hosted the fifth annual Tecan Symposium in the picturesque surroundings of Boston, Massachusetts, visiting the US for the first time. Held at the beautiful Taj Boston hotel, this year’s symposium explored the topic of ‘Mass spectrometry – the expanding role in life sciences and diagnostics’ and gave delegates an insight into the exciting opportunities and new developments in this fast-moving field.
With mass spectrometry (MS) becoming increasingly popular throughout the life sciences sector, from fundamental research to medical diagnostics, the 2012 Tecan Symposium covered a diverse range of MS applications with four main themes: the use of MS in diagnostics and applied markets; the role of MS in basic research; the collection, preparation and storage of samples for MS; and emerging trends and technologies in MS. Prominent speakers were invited from academia and industry, including Imperial College London and Quest Diagnostics, and spoke on subjects as diverse as medical diagnostics, the value of MS in space science and identifying traces of chocolate on ceramics recovered from archeological sites. With a wealth of expertise in so many different fields, they provided practical insights into current applications of MS, and discussed the technique’s potential for future applications. As in previous years, the main scientific program was complemented by a series of social events, including a tour of the Freedom Trail and an evening dinner in Boston Public Library, that allowed delegates to network in an informal atmosphere, contemplating the vast array of MS applications while hailing the success of the fifth Tecan Symposium.
