THE 5th EFCC SYMPOSIUM FOR BALKAN REGION

Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nada Majkic-Singh, President of the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia

The Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia and the Institute of Medical Biochemistry of the Clinical Centre of Serbia jointly organized the Fifth EFCC Symposium for the Balkan Region entitled “Proteins: from electrophoresis to proteomics” in Belgrade, from October 8-19, 2009. The Symposium was organized under the auspices of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC) and the Balkan Clinical Laboratory Federation (BCLF), as well as under the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia. The Society, as the member of IFCC and EFCC, greatly appreciates the role it has in the continuing development of our discipline according to the IFCC mission and the Strategic plan. The symposium coordinators were Prof. Dr Nada Majkić-Singh, Chair of the Meeting, and Professor Victor Blaton, EFCC Past President.

The idea of this EFCC Symposium was to show how the continuum of different electrophoretic techniques for protein profiling can contribute to proteomics by allowing the detection and measurement of a wide array of proteins, and the definition of their structures and functions.

The proteome is defined as the entire array of proteins, including their post-translational modifications, produced by an organism or system. Thus the proteome will vary with time and physiological or pathological events, or stresses, that a cell or organism undergoes. Proteome analysis is emerging as a potentially powerful tool to decipher pathophysiological processes, resulting in the establishment of the field of clinical proteomics. One of the main goals of clinical proteomics is to discover biomarkers for diseases in biological fluids and tissues. The complexity of the proteome requires a separation step by different electrophoretic techniques before the analysis by mass spectrometry.

The 1st part of the 5th Symposium covered the clinical utility of serum protein electrophoresis (Xavier Bossuyt, Belgium), agarose gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis in clinical chemistry (Jean-Francois Giot, France), the use of lab-on-chip electrophoresis and other methods in protein profiling (Olgica Trenčevska, Macedonia), MADGE-Microplate array diagonal gel electrophoresis (Sanja Stanković, Serbia), isoelectrofocusing and PCR amplification-reverse hybridization assay in evaluation of alfa-1-antitrypsin deficiency (Anđelo Beletić, Serbia) and application of proteomics techniques in biomarker discovery (Antonia Vlahou, Greece).

The 2nd part of Symposium covered the urinary proteome analysis using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry as a powerful tool in clinical diagnosis, prognosis and therapy evaluation (Harald Mischak, Germany), glucocorticoid receptors in health and disease (Gordana Matić, Serbia) and molecular diagnosis of phenylketonuria: from detective protein to disease-causing gene mutation (Sonja Pavlović, Serbia).

The following lectures covered experiences in clinical protein arrays: biochip cardiac array technology (Grazyna Sypniewska, Poland), cytokine and growth factor array (Hans J. van Pelt, The Netherlands), colorectal cancer array – simultaneous analysis of DNA alternations with biochip array technology (Andrew Cartwright, UK) and multiparameter testing of colorectal cancer (Bernhard Risse). Jim Thorn (United Kingdom) presented the use of the Analis CDT assay for screening for alcohol abuse.

The organization of the 5th EFCC Symposium for Balkan Region was the result of work and effort of coordinators and of the Organizational Committees. More then 300 participants from Serbia and Balkan counutries participated actively in the Symposium. During the Symposium a permanent exibition of equipment and reagents organized by different companies has been display.

All lectures are published in Journal of Medical Biochemistry 2009; 28: 221-326 (www.versita.com) the National Journal of the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia.

Lecturers of the 5th Symposium for Balkan Region(From left to right): Anđelo Beletić, Olgica Trenčevska, Sanja Stanković, Nada Majkić-Singh, Antonia Vlahou, Victor Blaton, Andrew Cartwright, Svetlana Ignjatović, Jim Thorn, Xavier Bossuyt