This is an inaugural event highlighting science and technology in the Northern Colorado region. This first Winter Symposium will feature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) capabilities for metabolomics and synthetic macromolecules characterization at two CORE analytical service facilities at Colorado State University, the Central Instrument Facility (CIF) and the Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility (PMF). 

Analytical methods that take advantage of NMR and MS, are among the most important tools used by research scientists in the physical, engineering and life sciences.  Routine access to powerful NMR methods and high resolution mass spectrometry has enabled studies to understand complex problems in, e.g., synthetic chemistry, natural products, catalysis, dynamics, structural biology and synthetic polymers.

Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have also evolved as complementary techniques in metabolomics studies, each with its own advantages and limitations, especially around reproducibility, quantitation, sample preparation and sensitivity. The rapidly growing area of metabolomics in which a large number of metabolites from body fluids, cells or tissue are detected, promises immense potential for a number of disciplines including early disease diagnosis, therapy monitoring, systems biology, drug discovery and nutritional science. This symposium will introduce participants to the newest analytical instrumentation and data processing tools available at the CIF and PMF CORE facilities, including Bruker and Waters quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, complex data processing platforms, and Bruker MALDI-MS and NMR. Participants will interact with application scientist and work around problems commonly encountered during analytics or data processing in MS- and NMR-based metabolomics workflows, including hands-on exercises comparing different data processing tools with real data collected on these systems. Students will be able to choose breakout sessions that are most relevant to their needs.

The goals are to:  1) provide an overview of available mass spectrometry and NMR technology at CSU CORE analytical facilities for metabolomics and synthetic macromolecule characterization; 2) learn about the different untargeted data processing tools available at these CORES for MS-based metabolomics to deconvolute and evaluate complex problems from large data sets; and 3) create a venue for students to interact with MS and NMR experts and application scientists.