Calling all Biological-SIMS practitioners and interested parties!
We are pleased to extend to you and your laboratory an invitation to join us in Orlando (FL, USA) on Sunday Sept. 7 for the Bio-SIMS Workshop associated with the Eleventh International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry- SIMS XI . The Workshop will run from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm (prior to the regular SIMS XI sessions). The workshop will focus on elemental, isotopic and molecular analysis of biological materials using both dynamic and static SIMS. This workshop will be the first opportunity in six years to discuss your work, current directions, concerns and opinions with your international colleagues in the biological SIMS community. We would like to encourage scientists actively involved in biological SIMS research to consider making a presentation at the workshop. Presentations should be informal and geared toward stimulating questions and drawing out diverse viewpoints with the goal of a free and open discussion about the enormous potential for SIMS in biomedical research. We are currently thinking of limiting each presentation to a maximum of 20 min, followed by 10-15 min of discussion. The purpose of offering such a workshop in addition to the biological sessions within the main SIMS XI sessions is to allow a more in-depth discussion of issues pertinent to biological SIMS applications. Some of the topics to be considered are the appropriateness of sample preparation with reference to analyte mobility, identification and correction of matrix effects, background issues, detection limits, quantitative analysis, measurement of isotope ratios, imaging of molecular species in tissue, as well as the relationships between SIMS and traditional biochemical and microanalytical analysis. Special emphasis will be placed on new and emerging techniques for analysis of biological materials including the uses of TOF-SIMS, isotopic tagging for drug localization and the use of novel molecular primary ion beams for static SIMS molecular analysis of biological tissues. We are also interested in how Bio-SIMS researchers assess progress in their own laboratories and in the field generally. Registration for the session is $50 which helps to recover a portion of the workshop costs. A buffet luncheon is included. Abstracts for the workshop should be sent to either Dr. Dennis Lazof (dynamic SIMS) or Dr. Peter Todd (static SIMS). Timeliness of expressed interest may be a factor in selection of speakers, as time for presentations is limited. Inquiries and comments may be sent to Dennis Lazof at dlazof@gibbs.oit.unc.edu or Peter Todd at toddpj@ornl.gov.