SLAS 2025: Our Top Picks

Our top picks for…

Monday, January 27

In a recent video interview, we asked Ron Heeren about the analytical science field’s recent standout accomplishments (see: Power List Perspectives on The Future of Analytical Science). He said: “If I had to highlight the biggest accomplishment, I’d say it’s the fact that we can now routinely perform single-cell transcriptomics, single-cell proteomics, and single-cell lipidomics.” Therefore, I’m pleased to say that single-cell analysis and omics are topics covered throughout SLAS 2025 – starting on Monday morning. Using a multi-omics approach, Nathan Lewis and his team at the University of Georgia have been able to identify the molecular pathways involved in altered neurodevelopment in Autism Spectrum Disorder, which you can find out about at 10:30 AM (32AB). 

We also thought it interesting that there are two tutorial sessions from exhibitors on alternatives to animal testing (Beckman Coulter’s session at 12:00 PM (25A); and Fujifilm Cellular Dynamic’s session at 2:00 PM (28A). Back in 2021, we published a cover feature (see: Of Mice and Monkeys) exploring how advanced analytical approaches are reducing our reliance on animal research.

Finally, for those of you interested in chemical biology, UCSF’s Brian Shoichet is running a session from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Last year, we published an article with one of the leaders in the field, Ben Cravatt (see: A Passion for Chemical Biology). 

Tuesday, January 28

Returning to the interview with Ron Heeren, he also said: “I was amazed by what I saw at ASMS in 2024. There were almost 1,000 contributions related to spatial biology and imaging mass spectrometry. To put that into perspective, the conference typically has around 7,000 to 8,000 attendees, so spatial biology is clearly dominating the field. This surge is largely due to the growing integration of multi-omics approaches, which is something I think we’ll see even more of in the future – provided we can effectively deal with all of the data generated.” 

Once again, we’re happy to take Heeren’s lead and recommend you check out Tuesday's 3:00 PM session on Spatial Omics Technology (32AB). Talks include: Whole Transcriptome Spatial Profiling of the Tumor Microenvironment (3:00 PM), Comprehensive single cell and spatial multiomic profiling of liver and heart disease (3:30 PM), and A Scalable Platform for Simultaneous Single-Cell Imaging and Sequencing (4:30 PM). 

We’d also like to highlight the 1:00 PM session entitled: Supporting Women in Science: A Networking Journey Through Curiosity, which will “guide participants through a series of insightful prompts, encouraging open conversations that uncover passions, celebrate achievements, and envision the future” – sounds good! Last year, Isabelle Kohler published an article on tips and tricks for a happy (and healthy) PhD journey (see: Work Hard, Network Harder), where she said: 

“To overcome networking challenges, I usually give the following advice: first, consider networking as a conversation between two (or more) humans. It’s not different from this! Next, if you’re intimidated by approaching a big “superstar” during a conference, start with approaching other young scientists during poster sessions or workshops. Simply introduce yourself and ask whether they can tell you more about their work. The first few minutes may feel awkward, but once the conversation has started, you’ll feel yourself start to relax.”

Wednesday, January 29

Wednesday looks packed from an analytical perspective, with more spatial omics sessions in store. We were also intrigued by Maria Bueno Alvez’s 10:00 AM talk (29AB) on blood proteome profiling. The abstract reads: “Traditional case-control studies often compare diseased individuals to healthy controls, leading to the identification of biomarkers that appear disease-specific but are actually general markers of inflammation or overall disease states. This approach can bias biomarker discovery, limiting the identification of truly disease-specific markers. To address this issue, we conducted a pilot pan-cancer study comparing each type of cancer to all other cancer types, rather than to healthy controls [...] This pan-cancer approach allowed us to identify a biomarker signature capable of distinguishing between different cancer types.” 

The afternoon (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM) session on “Novel Micro and Nanoscale Liquid Handling and Applications” (29CD) looks good. In particular, SLAS Travel Awardee Ming Yao, a postdoctoral scholar from the University of Washington, will discuss his work using “ultrasmall” (picoliter-scale) thin layer chromatography to assay sphingosine kinase activation in single leukemic cells. For more information about the latest advances in miniaturized separation technology, see our 2024 feature: Three Gurus of Miniaturized Chemical Analysis. 

Finally, Stefan Bekiranov’s 2:00 PM (32AB) talk on the application of generative AI for single-cell-omics-based precision medicine looks interesting. They developed a model to “predict patient disease states or outcomes using scRNA-seq single cell protein data. And you won’t want to miss the closing keynote on a “Radical Collaboration to Accelerate Cancer Precision Functional Genomics,” with Jesse Boehm, MIT / Break Through Cancer.