Tim Sangster explains why Reid Bioanalytical Forum is moving

In December 2015, the Reid Bioanalytical Forum entered a new era with a new committee and myself as new Chair. Our first task together was to agree that, moving forward, the Reid would maintain the same culture that had served it so successfully for more than 40 years. Long has The Reid been characterized by a culture of encouraging engagement and community involvement, welcoming the contributions of all, from our most experienced to our newest members. It has always been a safe place to discuss the interesting successes in our research, the frustrating failures and those brain teasers which keep us awake at night as we struggle for the answers.

With this firm commitment, we turned to official business. The first activity we undertook was to evaluate the 2016 bioanalytical training meeting that was run in Burlington House in conjunction with South Eastern Region Analytical Division of the RSC. The 22 members who attended gave us extremely positive feedback, and so we plan to run something similar next year. This brings us nicely to our 2017 activities.

This September, for the first time in 42 years, the Reid International Bioanalytical Forum will host its biannual meeting outside of Guildford! The new committee has taken the step to relocate the meeting after 40 successful years since the late Eric Reid initiated the meeting. The 2017 meeting will take place in the outskirts of Cambridge at The Cambridge Belfry in Camborne. I have had the pleasure of attending the meeting since the late 1990s. The University accommodation was never one of the highlights of the meeting (to put it mildly), but the rest of the meeting has always been a veritable highlight reel of scientific content, social events and networking opportunities, many of which have shaped my career and professional relationships. In moving the meeting, we wanted to ensure that we did not lose what had made the Reid Forum the success it always has been and to maintain the cost to delegate at the same reasonable expense.

We have worked extremely hard as a team to build an inviting scientific programme while maintaining rewarding social and networking opportunities. I’m excited to share an overview of our agenda. The meeting will start on the Monday night with a social event to encourage networking with a team-based quiz with prizes up for grabs. Tuesday morning, the scientific programme begins with a look at new developments in bioanalysis and the challenges of regulated bioanalysis, including a speaker from the MHRA. Tuesday night we travel into Cambridge with time to see some of the city before dinner at Peterhouse. Prof. David Cowan from Kings College London and the Director of Drug Control Centre will treat us to a presentation after dinner. This event is sponsored by Charles River Laboratories. On Wednesday, we will look at immunochemistry, highlighting the changes in bioanalysis, and with it the roles of bioanalytical scientists. Prof. Ian Wilson will join us after lunch to share his experiences and current research in the biomarker space. Dr. Paul Wheeler from Sigma will also talk to us about ultra-sensitive analysis of biomarkers and the challenges and opportunities these offer. Wednesday night is the conference dinner sponsored by Shimadzu. The highlight of the evening, I am sure, will be an after dinner presentation by Prof. Wilson who will speak philosophically about a variety of topics including, we hope, some of the history of the Reid Forum. We will finish on Thursday morning with a great session that brings the newer members of our community to the forefront.

The 22^nd Edition of the Reid International Bioanalytical Forum is sure to be an excellent meeting, and I hope my discourse has whetted your appetite enough to sign up here.  While the venue is very lovely, it is more limited in capacity from the University days, so sign up soon. I look forward to meeting you all.

About Tim Sangster

Tim Sangster is a well travelled bioanalytical chemist having worked in Scotland, Italy, England, America and finally back to Scotland to head up the Bioanalysis and Immunology Department for Charles River, Edinburgh eight years ago. During his travels he has gained experience in both CROs and Pharma supporting drug development from a Bioanalytical perspective from Discovery through to market.

Currently Tim’s main scientific focus are in the use of microsampling to reduce and refine toxicology study designs as well as applying it to other application areas and also the use of LC-MS in the analysis of macromolecules.