February 7-11, 2026
Thomas Michael Menino Convention & Exhibition Center (MCEC)
Boston, MA, USA
February 7-11, 2026
Thomas Michael Menino Convention & Exhibition Center (MCEC)
Boston, MA, USA
This short course will introduce mass spectrometry and the range of potential applications within drug discovery. Building from some basic principles, we will cover the array of different ionization techniques and mass spectrometers available today, and how they can be combined to solve practical challenges at various stages of the drug discovery pipeline. We will explore principles and methods for sample preparation, analysis of small molecules, peptides, proteins, oligos, biologics and non-covalent complexes, along with recent advances enabling high-throughput screening.
Throughout the course, fundamental ideas will be matched to examples from both literature and “real life” drug discovery problems, providing many opportunities for discussion in an interactive setting coupled with opportunities to highlight practical considerations such as budget and timeframes. This course will provide an opportunity to explore together the immense value mass spectrometry can bring to many aspects of drug discovery.
Ramisa Fariha, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Brown University
Ramisa Fariha is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Brown University RNA Center, working under the mentorship of Dr. Juan Alfonzo. Originally from Narayanganj, Bangladesh, Ramisa is the first Ivy League graduate from her hometown.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Penn State, where she became the first international student to receive the ‘Freshman of the Year’ award. In 2018, she joined Brown University, pursuing a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and collaborating with Dr. Jonghwan Lee and Dr. Jeff Morgan. For her doctoral studies at Brown, she worked with Dr. Anubhav Tripathi, focusing on improving diagnostic accessibility through biotransport phenomena. Her research in reproductive health screening and therapeutic drug monitoring, using dried blood spots and a patented cylindrical electrode, has garnered national and international media attention for its potential to revolutionize clinical screening automation.
Ramisa is passionate about increasing minority representation in STEM and serves as a mentor to students globally. She holds leadership roles as an Ad-Hoc member of the Knowledge Content Delivery Council and Early Career Committee of the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), and is a national mentor for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She has also been actively involved with Females in Mass Spectrometry (FeMS) and chaired international advocacy at Brown’s Graduate Student Council (2023-2024). Ramisa was a Brown University BEST Scholar (2022) and President of the South Asian Scholars in STEM (2023-2024).
Featured in various science blogs for her activism as a womxn of color in STEM, Ramisa aspires to become an independent researcher specializing in ovarian cancer detection, inspiring international students and womxn of color to pursue their dreams.
Joe Gault, PhD
Associate Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca
Joe Gault, PhD, is an Associate Principal Scientist in the High Throughput Screening (HTS) Group in Discovery Sciences, Biopharma R&D at AstraZeneca.
Joe has 14 years of experience developing mass spectrometry methods to tackle biomedical questions. Following a Ph.D. at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, deploying top-down MS to discover new post translational modifications in pathogenic bacteria, Joe spent six years in Prof. Dame Carol Robinson’s group at University of Oxford, UK. There, together with OMass Therapeutics and instrument manufacturers Thermo Fisher and Waters, he developed several iterations of high-resolution mass spectrometry systems, specifically designed for native MS of membrane protein complexes. These ultimately enabled multistage (MSn) methods to identify previously unknown ligands for challenging therapeutic targets. Collaborating with Prof. Stephan Rauschenbach, Joe also built new instrumentation, directly coupling native MS with cryo-EM to enable mass-selective structural biology. Joe has >30 publications and patents in peer-reviewed journals.
Prior to his current role at AstraZeneca, he led a team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, providing a range of pre-clinical mass spectrometry assays (omics, HDX, native, affinity MS) supporting target selection, hit-lead and lead optimisation for mutliple rare disease programs. Now, as part of the biophysical screening team at AZ, he works on implementing high-throughput MS techniques to support biophysical and biochemical screening, especially affinity MS for hit-finding. He enjoys finding new opportunities to leverage MS throughout the discovery pipeline and supporting colleagues at the beginning of their MS journey.
Marcus Ladds, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, AstraZeneca
Marcus Ladds, PhD, has 14 years of experience in mass spectrometry across multiple disciplines including DMPK and proteomics. He joined AstraZeneca in 2022 and is responsible for the design of assays utilising mass spectrometry to drive drug discovery efforts within the Assays, Profiling and Cell Sciences Department for both profiling and MoA studies.
Marcus obtained his BSc and MSc at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) in Biomedical Science with a project looking at metabolism of prodrugs. He then went on to study his PhD at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) under Prof. Sonia Lain and Prof. Sir David Lane where he co-led a project looking for reactivators of wild-type p53 function in a high throughput phenotypic screen and subsequent target deconvolution and optimisation of medicinal chemistry. He has been involved in the publication of 13 peer-reviewed articles and is an active organiser of the Cambridge Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry meetings in the UK.