When the NIH planned a proteomics symposium in May, organizers hoped for 300 attendees. To be safe, they planned for 500. “We got 1,200,” says Lew Pannell, who chairs the mass spec NIH interest group. Pannell and others didn’t miss the message, so the latest interest group was launched for proteophiles.
The proteomics interest group, chaired by Donita Garland, is open to anyone interested or involved in the field. Still in the planning stages, meetings are expected eventually to include discussions and workshops on the latest techniques. “Primarily this year we’re going to have monthly speakers in an area of proteomics,” Garland says. Though some of the interest groups have few members and meet seldom, she comments, “I expect this one to be very active … and heavily subscribed to.”
Pannell says they still don’t know what to expect for the group. “We could have one person turn up at the first meeting,” he says. “But we could have 1,000.”
Information about the interest group can be found at a temporary website, proteome.nih.gov.
— Meredith Salisbury