LA MS DAY - PROGRAM
9:00 am ● Check in & coffee
9:45 am - 10:00 am ● Opening remarks
10:00-10:15 am ● Lightning Talks (Evosep ● Syft ● Waters)
10:15 am - 10:40 am ● Mario Alba (Doctoral Candidate - University of Southern California)
Hepatic Steatosis Induced by Bioactive Lipids Regulated by AKT Specific Isoforms
10:40 am - 11:05 am ● Dr. Gazmend Elezi (Postdoctoral Scholar - UCLA)
Novel LC-MS Technique for Detecting Ancient Wine Molecules
11:05 am - 11:30 am ● Dr. Anja Karlstaedt (Assistant Professor - Cedars Sinai Medical Center)
Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 1 Regulates Cardiac Metabolic Adaptation During Oncometabolic Stress
11:30 am - 1:00 pm ● Lunch and Poster Session
1:00 pm - 1:10 pm ● Lightning Talks (Agilent ● MOBILion Systems)
1:25 pm - 1:50 pm ● Dr. Chenghao Zhu (Postdoctoral Fellow - UCLA)
moPepGen: Rapid and Comprehensive Elucidation of Novel Proteogenomic Peptides
1:50 pm - 2:15 pm ● Dr. Justyna Fert-Bober (Assistant Professor - Cedars Sinai Medical Center)
High Resolution Ion Mobility to the Rescue for Protein Citrullination Analysis
2:20 pm - 2:30 pm ● Lightning Talks (Bruker ● Thermo Fisher)
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm ● Keynote Speaker ● Dr. Lisa M. Jones (Professor - UCSD)
In-Cell Protein Footprinting Coupled with Mass Spectrometry for Structural Biology Across the Proteome
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm ● Career Panel Q&A
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm ● Networking Happy hour
This is our inaugural LA Mass Spec Day, in collaboration with UCLA, which will take place in person on October 17th, 2025, at USCLA South Bay
LA Mass Spec Day serves as a significant platform for networking and education for early-career scientists who are on the cusp of establishing their own research labs or venturing into the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Our one-day symposium, hosted by LAMMS and UCLA, provides a unique opportunity for applicants to showcase their mass spectrometry-related research.
With an anticipated audience of approximately 75 postdoctoral fellows, alumni, vendors, and participating faculty from universities across the Southern California region, the event promises to facilitate the exchange of ideas and foster collaboration.
Dr. Melissa Hoffman
Title of the talk: Chemoproteomic Discovery of RAS–PI3K Disruptors and Translation to a Clinical PI3K Target Engagement Assay
Melissa joined Vividion’s proteomics team in 2020 as a Scientist I. She has progressed to lead the proteomics platform group operations. The team supports Early Discovery Sciences hit identification efforts and compound tractability through chemoproteomics screening and later-stage programs by measuring in vivo target engagement and protein PD responses. She is also leading the clinical target engagement assay development to support Vividion’s clinical trials and building out translational proteomics workflows.
Before coming to Vividion, Melissa completed a Clinical Chemistry Fellowship at UC San Diego under Dr. Robert Fitzgerald’s mentorship where she learned clinical assay validation and toxicology. She received her PhD in Cancer Biology from Moffitt Cancer Center/University of South Florida where she studied translational proteomics in Dr. John Koomen’s lab. She received her BS in Biology from California State University, Chico and is from the SF Bay Area.
Dr. Jennifer Van Eyk
Dr. Jennifer Van Eyk, Ph.D, an international leader in clinical proteomics, is focused on democratizing personalized biomarkers and individualized therapies. She obtained her PhD from University of Alberta, and carried out post-doctoral fellowships in Heidelberg and Chicago before started her lab at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. She was recruited to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and then to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles where she directs the inaugural Advanced Clinical BioSystems Research Institute. She is a Professor of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute and holds the Erika Glazer Endowed Chair in Women’s Heart Disease. Her achievements include <425 articles, <26 patents, and numerous National and International research and leadership awards.