Fun in Maine

My latest scientific adventures at the Gordon's Conference

Subject Area: Science / Personal

1% or 2% Milk? - Lipids for the masses - The second reason.

1% or 2% Milk?

I attended my first in-person conference this year since the COVID 19 outbreak. The first was the American Society of Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) in Minneapolis in June. The second is Gordon's conference on Lipidomics in Maine. My favorite was the Gordon conference, and it’s one of the nicest ones I have attended in a long time (this is also my first time at a Gordon conference). So lovely that I am writing this blog on the bus ride from Maine to the Logan airport in Boston.

I suspect one of the reasons for my preference is the paradox of choice. For those who are reading this who are not in my scientific field – which I expect to be the bulk of my audience – ASMS is a large conference with thousands of attendees who are using the analytical chemistry instrument called Mass Spectrometry in their research.

Mass spectrometry aids in the identification and quantification of molecules in all sorts of samples, such as biofluids, tissues, etc. Because there are thousands of people in attendance, you have these multiple choices of presentations you can attend. And this has been the template for most academic conferences I have attended in my career.

So basically – to use a crude analogy – this is like going to the grocery store to buy milk, except that you now have to decide on the percentage of fat (1%, 2%, skim) combined with the source of milk (goat, sheep, cow, almond, oat, etc.)

On the other hand, the Gordon conference is ‘small,’ it goes for a week, with about 200 people. With no options of what milk to buy. There is only one schedule.

Here is how the paradox of choice comes into play: while potentially a good thing, the abundance of options might make deciding much harder. And what more: it might leave you less satisfied, because for whatever option you pick, there is room for enough imagination that something could have been a better option.

Lipids for the masses

The Gordon conference I attended was a lipidomics meeting. Lipidomics, in brief, is the study of lipids in the context of a biological system. Lipids are ‘waxy’ compounds containing fatty acids and their derivatives, essential for sustaining life. I presented my postdoctoral work on the roles of lipids in ovarian cancer.

A prerequisite for cancer development is the reorganization of all sorts of molecules in our bodies. This re-organization starts before a person experiences any symptoms, which means a person can have cancer and feel quite OK at the very early stages.

In my postdoctoral research work, I investigated a nasty, highly aggressive subtype of ovarian cancer called high-grade serous ovarian cancer. And the goal is to investigate and track the perturbation of lipids throughout the developmental stages of ovarian cancer, starting from pre-tumorigenesis till the mice are sacrificed from being too sick from the disease. Unfortunately, this is extremely hard to do in humans, if it is at all possible. So, we used a mouse model of ovarian cancer, and now we have exciting results with insights into what might be happening in humans.  Some of these results were what I presented at the conference.

One highlight of the conference for me was a poster presentation by Dr. Bhattacharya, a professor of Ophthalmology from the University of Miami who presented work on the role of lipids in intraocular pressure homeostasis. His research directly impacts Glaucoma, a silent thief of sight.

Glaucoma is usually controlled with eyedrop medicine, which is used daily to lower eye pressure that damages the optic nerves. While discussing with him at the poster session, he mentioned that some of the science they are uncovering would only require patients to use this eyedrop medicine, perhaps once in only a few months in the future.

And yet another is Dr. Cuperlovic-Culf ‘s talk titled "Gaussian Process Regression Selection of Principal Distance Correlation Partners for Determination of Lipidomics and Metabolomics Network Changes in Acute COVID-19 Infection."

I won’t even attempt to explain her talk as I would love to finish this blog before I get back home.  But in brief, she has developed some excellent networking data science methods to investigate perturbations in metabolic pathways, an alternative to traditional univariate and multivariate methods.

The second reason.

The other reason I liked the Gordon lipidomics conference was 1) the location and 2) the structured, compulsory free time.

The conference was held in Newry, Maine. Basically, in the middle of nowhere. With a massive population of just 411 people in town, guess what? We had to face our science.  

And then the free time of up to 3 hours daily gives a much-needed break from science to get rejuvenated, meet people more casually, and get on going again. To my credit, I made very good use of my free time. I tried out archery and kayaking for the first time.

Photo Credit: Xin Ma.

While large conferences have their appeal and benefit, there is something to be said about the paradox of choices and the importance of structured free time.

PS: I almost forgot the most important thing: We got a large lobster for dinner, Wednesday night to be precise. Really good.