2010, Volume XIII, Issue 1SUMMARIES OF SYMPOSIA AND CONFERENCESThe 123rd AOAC International Annual Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, highlighted the Association of Analytic Chemists’ evolving role as a developer of new analytic tools that advance their industry and government partners’ vital economic, food safety, agricultural, environmental, and public health objectives. The September 13–16, 2009, event brought together prominent analytical chemists and microbiologists from around the world to share their perspectives on emerging issues in contaminant testing and ongoing progress in the analytic technology needed to solve them. Gary A. Lombaert, the laboratory operations manager of Health Canada, and Hans P. van Egmond, head of the Natural Toxins section of the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), co-chaired Emerging Technologies for Rapid Determination of Mycotoxins, the first of two symposiums devoted to mycotoxin testing. Discussions at this event focused on the benefits and limitations of array-based biosensors, fluorescence polarization immunoassays, IR spectroscopy, and electrochemical immunosensors. The second symposium, Analytical Insights into Formation and Control of Mycotoxins, centered on recent advances in isolating untargeted analytes from complex biological matrices. An international panel of leading government, academic, and industry researchers explored the contribution of groundbreaking analytic techniques such as LC-TOF/MS and Ultra-performance LC to scientists’ understanding the formation and control of regulated and emerging mycotoxins. The meeting was co-chaired by Hamide Senyuva, a senior research scientist at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey/Ankara Test and Analysis Laboratory, Ankara, Turkey (TUBITAK-ATAL) and research chemist Mary W. Trucksess of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Nutrition (CFSAN). Detailed information on AOAC meetings and activities is available on the AOAC website: www.aoac.org |