There was a lot going on in the San Diego convention center last week, as the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) held their
annual meeting. Posters flew up and down in rapid succession and there were more presentations than any single scientist could hope to get to. From the role of
stem cells to
new drugs for the treatment some of the deadliest cancers, the amount of cancer-related research was staggering . . . and encouraging. An important aspect of this research is the ever-evolving choice of kits, dyes, instruments, tools and toys offered by vendors to support researchers in their work. So peruse the
AACR website and Biocompare’s
cancer news to learn about the latest cancer research results, and peruse below for this editor’s exhibit hall tour to find out what was featured on the vendor floor at AACR 2008.
Let’s start with the fun stuff:
Best T-shirt: “Spit happens” by DNA Genotek, Inc..
Best comic book: Interferon Force by pbl interferon source.
Best booth: Bristol-Myers Squibb. They had a chimney, for Pete’s sake. Even if it was San Diego, and even if it was a video of a fire in the fireplace, there was still a fireplace inside the convention center, with plenty of room to sit and chat as you sipped on your cappuccino. Cappuccino, or the espresso drink of your choice, seemed to be the giveaway of the meeting as many vendors had baristas working away in their booths. If you wanted something to go with that espresso drink, GE Healthcare was offering up freshly baked (as in, baked right there in the booth), still warm and gooey Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies.
If there was a technology of the meeting, I would have to say it was imaging: in vivo imaging, live cell imaging, anything-you-want-to-look-at imaging. There were large screens showing colorful and clear mouse innards from one end of the hall to the other. VisEn Medical used the meeting to officially launch their new FMT 2500 Imaging System for fluorescence-based quantitative tomography. Carestream Molecular Imaging was showing off their KODAK In-Vivo Multispectral Imaging System FX and their new KODAK Molecular Imaging Software 5.0 which has a very straightforward user interface (really, it does, check it out!) and is also available in a regulatory edition. In vivo imaging was also well represented by CRi, VisualSonics, LI-COR, FujiFilm, Biospace Lab, and Bioscan. You may have also noticed the colorful bus in the back of the exhibit hall; that was Applied Precisions’ traveling cellular imaging lab. Check out their tour dates and you might be able to bring your own experiment into the bus for imaging on their system. Olympus was showing their LV200 for live cell imaging of luminescent cells. Unfortunately, it is not currently available in the United States, but Europe and Asia, you’re in luck!
siRNA knockdown and small RNA analysis were also popular topics, as was the extraction of RNA from precious FFPE (formalin fixed, paraffin embedded) cancer samples in order to perform whole genome expression analysis. If you wanted to learn more about these or any of numerous other products and technologies, hopefully, you sat in on some of the in-booth vendor presentations. These presentations didn’t require a huge time commitment (each that I attended was in the 10 to 30 minute time frame) nor did they require sign ups or badge scans. They were straightforward, scientific (and ok, yes, a little marketing) presentations on the latest tools and technologies available.
Among other things, ThermoScientific presented their Accell™ siRNA reagents. Proprietary modifications allow these siRNAs to be taken up directly by the cell: no transfection reagent, no electroporation, no vector required. So far, they’ve worked with every cell type tested, including primary cells. Applied Biosystems discussed their SOLiD™ Small RNA Expression Kit. With this kit, researchers can capture small RNAs (miRNAs, naturally occurring siRNAs, piRNAs, viral small RNAs, etc.) for the generation of a library and subsequent analysis on the SOLiD™ System. One of the key benefits here is that capture does not require you know anything about the RNA sequence. Also, you can start with unfractionated RNA. The kit is due out in July of this year. Invitrogen showed beautiful images using their Click-iT™ technology. Using this technology, you can label cellular DNA in such a way that detection does not require denaturation or DNase treatment. As a result, proliferation can be measured without exposing your cells to harsh treatments. One attendee asked about sensitivity as compared to the traditional BrdU proliferation assay, Invitrogen’s answer was that Click-iT™ is as sensitive, if not more so. They have been able to identify single cells replicating in brain tissue.
Illumina presented their DASL® Assay for expression profiling using partially degraded RNA, such as that from FFPE samples. You didn’t have to wander too far from Illumina’s both to find the competition: NuGEN Technologies for reagents for RNA amplification; Affymetrix and Agilent Technologies for the arrays and expression analysis. Posters were presented at the meeting using each technology.1,2
There were lots of posters. And lots of booths. And lots of presentations. And hopefully, lots of fun too. So tell me, what did I miss? Which (poster, booth, presentation, restaurant, freebie . . .) were your favorites? Click the ‘Join the conversation . . .’ link in the box below to share your views. I look forward to hearing from you.
See you at the next meeting!
1Fan J, et al., “Enabling Robust Whole-Genome Expression Profiling in Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) Cancer Tissue Samples.” American Association of Cancer Research Abstracts #1703, 2008.
2Sementchenko V, et al, “Gene Expression Profiling using RNA from Formalin Fixed, Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) Colon Cancer Tissue using WT-Ovation™ FFPE System and Affymetrix GeneChip® 3’ and Exon ST arrays as well as Agilent Whole Genome arrays.” American Association of Cancer Research Abstracts #LB-293, 2008.