LabAutomation 2006 - SLAS

Where Laboratory Technologies Emerge and Merge
Special Sessions on Emerging Trends Concerning
Microarray Standards and the Biotechnology Workforce
Join us on Wednesday morning, January 25, as an active participant in one of these three “hot topic sessions of
the day.” All presentations are followed by open dialogue for questions-and-answers.
A Discussion on the Stem Cell
Research Debate Session
11:15 am
Location: Pasadena, Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel
Lawrence Goldstein
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California
lgoldstein@ucsd.edu
The Stem Cell Research Debate: Therapeutics &
The Federal Funding Continuum
In this special session, Lawrence S.B. Goldstein, Ph.D.,
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University
of California, San Diego, discusses the background information
on the uses of stem cells in therapeutics and the issues arising
from the U.S. Government’s regulations concerning federal
funding for this research, and summarize current and future
sources of funding.
Emerging Trends in the
Laboratory Technology Workforce
11:15 am
Location: Madera, Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel
Elaine Johnson
Bio-Link
San Francisco, California
ejohnson@biolink.ucsf.edu
Back by popular demand, this session brings together an
outstanding panel of academic, industry, government, and
human resource biotechnology workforce experts to discuss
the issues and trends for today and tomorrow for the labor
force in the laboratory. It is well documented that there is a
growing need for the technical work force, and an emerging
new emphasis and sense of urgency. Led by Elaine Johnson,
Ph.D., Executive Director, Bio-Link, National Science
Foundation Advance Technology Education Center,
this session will focus on the spectrum of labor within the
automated laboratory environment, unique and inherent
challenges, and future profiles of the ever-evolving
biotechnology workforce.
19
Microarray Assays: Problems,
Solutions and Standards Session
11:15 am
Location: Catalina, Wyndham Palm Springs Hotel
Margaret Cam
NIH
Bethesda, MD
maggie_cam@nih.gov
Challenges Facing Multi-Platform Array Data:
Progress Towards Validation
Over recent years, a variety of microarray platforms has become
increasingly available for use in genome-wide gene expression
studies. Several studies have incorporated data from multiple
array platforms to determine their overall cross-compatibility.
These studies have yielded mixed results, with some finding
satisfactory to good correlations, while others finding them to
be poor. The conclusions of these studies differ mainly because
of variable experimental designs, array types, and annotational,
statistical and filtering approaches used. Despite a lack of
consensus on cross-platform comparability, gene expression
results from current array technologies can be complementary
across multiple array platforms. We have found that genes that
are concordantly changed by any 2 platforms are likely to be
validated by real-time PCR, but where they are discordant, gene
expression changes can also be additive across platforms.
Marc Salit
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersbrug, Maryland
salit@nist.gov
Microarray Measurements of Known Quality
NIST has developed a targeted program addressing the technical
infrastructure (measurement science, standards, data, models)
required to support Gene Expression profiling with microarrays. As
the session abstract notes, there is need for better understanding
of the quality of microarray results. The inability to establish
performance has led to poor confidence in microarray results,
difficulty in assessing the agreement of different experiments,
conflicting reports in the literature, and lost opportunity.
The goal of the NIST program is to enable measurements of known
quality for microarray gene expression results. Results of known
quality will better support research applications in bioscience, and
will facilitate adoption of microarray gene expression measurements
in regulated applications. Measurements of known quality will permit
microarray results to support pharmaco- and toxico-genomics
results for new drug applications, and will lead to new in-vitro
diagnostic (IVD) devices.