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Proteomics in Portland: A Video Update from the HUPO Conference
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Proteomics in Portland: A Video Update from the HUPO Conference
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Upload Date:
2024-03-15T00:00:00.0000000
Transcript:
Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JONATHAN: Hey, everyone. Welcome to GEN's coverage of the Human Proteome Organization's 2024 conference. The Human Proteome Organization, or HUPO, or H-U-P-O conference, which is in its 20th year, has become a home for scientists to discuss the use of proteomics technologies and to disseminate knowledge pertaining to the human proteome and that of model organisms. I'm joined by GEN's deputy editor in chief, Julianna LeMieux.
JONATHAN: Hi, Julianna.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Hi, Jonathan. Hi, from Portland, Oregon.
JONATHAN: Yeah. How's it going up there?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Good. Yeah, it's great. I've been here for-- I just got in Sunday night, so just been a day and a half. But it's my first proteomics conference, so I'm learning a lot.
JONATHAN: And how are you liking HUPO so far? HUPO, HUPO. How are they saying it?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: I think it HUPO.
JONATHAN: Yeah.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah, so I really-- I've been having a great time. So like I said, I've been-- I decided to come. I really wanted to come because we've noticed, as has the rest of the world, that proteomics is super hot right now. So I wanted to come. I wanted to just immerse myself in both the technologies that are being used in proteomics, but also what people are doing with them.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And that has definitely happened just in the last day and-- you know how it is when you go and you just immerse yourself? And it's like, you learn so much so quickly. I want to say one thing. It's not just that we've noticed that proteomics is blowing up. So I was talking to Parag Mallick yesterday. So Parag is both an academic at Stanford and also the co-founder of Nautilus, which is a new up and coming proteomics company.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And he was telling me that he teaches a class at Stanford in proteomics. And he said, for the last however many years, it's been about-- full of about 20 people. He said now, in the last year or two, it's up to 200 people-- roughly 200 people. And so it's like a whole new thing. They had to find a new room.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: So it's like, proteomics-- the message is like proteomics is hot. And so I'm just here to, yeah, learn all about it.
JONATHAN: Out of curiosity, when I think of proteomics, I usually think of quantifying and IDing different proteins. What about protein sequencing, is there any of that going on at the conference?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah. I'm glad that you asked that, Jonathan. So yeah, I remember writing an article last year on a bunch of up and coming protein sequencing companies. I will say, the only one that I've seen that has a presence here at the meeting is Quantum-SI. And I have not seen the other ones here, but it might just be too early maybe. But yeah, I have actually not seen a huge presence there besides Quantum-SI.
JONATHAN: Yeah. That's a pretty cool company. Well, so for those of us who have never been there-- and this is your first time, right? What's it like? Can you give a general description, the size, the kinds of sessions?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah. So it's the kind of conference that I really like going to because there's a great mix of both academic research talks and also technology, the cool tech that has existed for a long time, and also the up and coming ones as well. So it's a small conference. Jonathan, it's about six-- it's just under 600 people. So it is on the smaller size, but for me, that is a perfect size because when you're sitting in a talk, you don't feel like you're missing for other talks going on at the same time.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: You know when you go to big conferences and there are all those tracks? And so they have, it's either just one talk at a time or sometimes there's a track of just two, and you have to make a choice. And then also they have time just to walk around the Expo Hall and meet the exhibitors that are here. So it's actually it's a really good size, yeah.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And as far as the vibe goes it's, obviously there's so much terrific proteomic science going on, but there's a little bit of silliness here too or people not taking themselves so seriously. So for example. So there's a bunch of posters. And so both yesterday and today, there was an hour block in the big-- in the big conference, the lecture hall.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And they do, every single poster is given one minute, the presenters given one minute to do a little pitch, a one-minute pitch to come to their poster, and they just roll through. And there's just tons of them. But it's a riot because, I mean, some people just present their poster as they would, but some people I've heard poems, some people write poems, some people put up a little game.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: One woman read a news report, like breaking news. Oh, one researcher rapped to Vanilla Ice's, Ice Ice Baby, but made proteomics worked. So it's just a riot. The whole room is laughing and clapping. And so yeah, there's a lot of younger people here. It's fun.
JONATHAN: Yeah. That's what I was going to ask. I mean, a few of the conferences I've gone recently from JPM and the Precision Medicine Coalition, it's been just people in suits. And it's not what I expected coming from academia, where I'm used to everyone getting excited about bringing their poster and that whole kind of-- just the whole span of the research community. So I'm jealous.
JONATHAN: I haven't been to a conference like that in a little bit.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Well, you have to bring your rapping skills I think. But yeah, I haven't seen a suit really here. I mean, maybe just a couple. But I don't get the sense that there's a big investor presence. But I could be wrong. But it's-- I think they're here, but it's like a lot of academics. And it's just very casual in that way.
JONATHAN: Yeah. No, that's nice. And also just like the single track for the most part. At JPM, there was 10 talks simultaneously. I'm like, I'm not going to any of them, so I don't have to worry about which one I missed.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: It makes it easy because you just kind of can follow along without making a million decisions during the day.
JONATHAN: Yeah, totally. So is it strictly proteomics? I was looking through the agenda and I did see some stuff on spatial omics. I don't know what specifically they meant by that. But is it pretty limited to proteins?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: I would say it's like 95% proteomics, yeah. I will say, I've seen some metabolomics. So that is creeping in definitely. So this morning, I was at a sponsored breakfast talk. So there's two early morning breakfast talks at 7:15. And I went to Alamar's this morning. There were relatively new proteomics company selling a new-- they just launched their instrument in January, so really a new instrument.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And at the end of the talk, there was a portion of it given by someone from Panome Bio, so that's a metabolomics company. And that was really interesting. They were talking about a study that they're doing with colorectal cancer patients. And he actually used some of the proteomic data from the Alamar instrument combined with the metabolomics data from Panome Biome.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And they're trying to create a network of proteins to basically identify pathways. So that's where I-- that's a good example of where I've seen metabolomics creep in. But at the end of the day, all things lead back to proteomics, yeah. So really as far as the proteomics go, it's been-- I mean, I've seen a lot of mass spec talks. I just got out of Brooker's lunch talk actually, which was really focused on mass spec.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And then some of the newer proteomics technologies that have a really big presence here, like Olink SomaLogic, Alamar, the one I just mentioned, Nautilus, which I mentioned earlier. Yeah, so lots of different ways to tackle proteomics.
JONATHAN: What have been some of your favorite talks so far?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah. That's always such a hard question to answer because it's hard to pick your favorite. But so the Brooker talk that I was just talking about, it was their sponsor lunch talk. But they had some really interesting data in there about-- and of course, I'm a microbiologist, so this is just near and dear to my heart. But they were talking about the Jumbo Phages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And they were looking at protein interactions that mediate that phage attack. They also were talking about tuberculosis in children and finding biomarkers for tuberculosis. The science is-- so that's very cool. Actually another micro talk that I loved was given by [INAUDIBLE] Lu from an institution in Germany yesterday. And her lab is mapping interactomes using cross-linking mass spectrometry for viral host interactome, like how the virus interacts with the host proteins and brings them into the virus.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: So some microbiology going on. That's very cool. Yesterday morning, there was a talk. It was SomaLogic-sponsored talk. And it was given by a researcher out of Beth, Israel. His name is [INAUDIBLE] Lieberman. And it was a really translational talk. He's looking at Crohn's disease and looking at using SomaLogic SomaScan platform to develop biomarkers for the whole-- the whole spectrum of Crohn's disease and also just other IBD diseases.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: So we're talking from diagnosis, to clinical features, to disease outcomes, to treatments, and really parsing out. Crohn's disease is so super complicated. And so trying to parse out some of the differences that could make a difference in treating patients. There's a lot of translational talks going on. I guess the other one was the talk, I think already talked about it, but they were talking about the colorectal cancer in Alamar's talk-- oh, with the metabolomics.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: So very interesting. And a lot of information coming out on just the technology. Actually that's another good point. So in Nautiluss's talk yesterday-- so Nautilus is a new company, that instrument is not commercialized yet. I think it's launching sometime next year. But that talk was really focused on the technology. And Parag, who already mentioned, he's a real member of this proteomics community.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: He's been coming to HUPO. He told me almost since the very beginning, so they're really just here educating the community about their technology, what they're doing, what they're building because it's just so important for them to really be communicative and open about what they're doing. So the point is a huge balance of talks focused on technologies, but also some really amazing translational work going on a whole host of different diseases.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Really you can see it all here.
JONATHAN: It sounds--
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Oh, really sad. Sorry, Jonathan. I missed the plenary that was given by Mary-Claire King. I was still traveling in at that point, but I'm sure I would be talking about that too. But yeah, it was sad to miss that one.
JONATHAN: Yeah. You've mentioned Nautilus in Prague, [INAUDIBLE],, a few times. And I did get to speak to him a few weeks or months ago. And it was featured on one of our podcasts. And yeah, he's definitely one of those true and tried original voices of the proteomics field. And it's going to be exciting to see their device, and also many other technologies coming out in the proteomics world.
JONATHAN: Speaking of technologies, how does this conference compare to genomics conferences like AGBT, especially where I feel like in the past, there's been a lot of technology drops and whatnot? How would you compare those?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, I have been going to AGBT now for several years. So this conference does not have, I would say, the big splashy launch news that we definitely experienced at AGBT every year. So I would say that that's one piece. It feels smaller, but I will say, the energy is the same, where that it's this community of people that are all super passionate about a technology or a field and they all want to drive it forward.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And that's-- that feeling is at both conferences. And here, and at AGBT but I'll just say for here too, you can tell that this is a real community of people and that they've been around each other a lot and that they've-- some have been around a long time. So that is definitely the same. The structure is similar, where they have the sponsor-- the sponsors, the sponsored lunch talks and breakfast talks, and things like that.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: It's not the party scene that AGBT is, Jonathan, at least not for me maybe. I mean, probably all these proteomics people are partying, but it's a little more subdued in that respect. But I will say, tonight, there's a mixer in the exhibition hall. I've got a free drink ticket laying around somewhere. So maybe that'll be more social. But yeah, yeah. So those are some of the differences.
JONATHAN: Yeah, definitely. Has there-- we've been flirting with this idea. But has there been anything very notable from the exhibition floor. I mean, I imagine it's much smaller. And you said, it's mostly posters, it's not company booths and whatnot.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Well, so the posters and the company-- and the exhibitors are all in-- they share this space, actually, and then there's also posters in the hallway over here too. Yeah, the exhibit hall is right here behind me. I would say it is small. I'd say less than 30 companies are here. But it's a big mix of, like I said I guess before, both mass spec companies, also the newer companies that are up and coming, and yeah, people just demoing their instruments.
JONATHAN: Something I've seen in some conferences, like I was just mentioning before, the precision medicine conference, is there will be different camps of people, for instance, in there there was like the pathologists, and then the pathologists who use AI. Is there anything going on there at the conference where you have the mass spec people and they're at war with some of the newer technologies or is everyone getting along in that sense?
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: I think that everyone is getting along in that sense. I mean, there's definitely mass spec companies and then other companies. But like I said, I mean, a lot of the people who are in the newer companies also came from mass spec too. And actually, even when you talk to these newer companies, like SomaLogic, Olink, and the others, everybody I've talked to has said, we're not going to replace mass spec. That's-- mass spec is not going anywhere.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: And it is innovating at the same time. So mass-- like in the Brooker Talk I was just in. I mean, mass spec is getting better, and better, and better. And also, these other technologies are coming up as well. But it's like-- I mean I think that everybody-- at least everybody who I've talked to agrees that they're all going to-- it's not like you need one or the other, they're either very complementary to each other or you could use one or the other, but it's like one's not going away.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: You know what I mean? So I think that that's the message that I've gotten anyway as a novice really in the proteomics field myself.
JONATHAN: Yeah, definitely. No, I just started learning a bit about affinity-selected mass spec, which is like, they can use for huge screenings and stuff like that. So it's definitely not going anywhere. So it's AI's new best friend for some drug discovery people. So big question here. I've been waiting to ask. I was checking out the agenda. Did you go to yoga this morning?
JONATHAN:
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: I did not go, Jonathan. I did not go to yoga. I'm still on a little jet lagged, I will say. Although, actually that would have made-- I was up very early actually. But I went to-- I'm not sure what time it is, but I was in a talk at 7:15. So I think I chose maybe that over yoga this morning.
JONATHAN: Yeah. The opposite problem--
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: I feel like being in the northwest that I feel like this is a place where people do a lot of yoga.
JONATHAN: Yeah, yeah. It has a very freeing-- well, like you said, it's been a goofy and fun conference. So it definitely fits the Pacific Northwest.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah.
JONATHAN: Any hints on where the conference will be next year? It seems to move around yearly.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: Yeah. I asked, and they told me it'd be in Philadelphia next year.
JONATHAN: Very good.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: So I won't be so jet lagged, so maybe yoga will happen next year.
JONATHAN: I don't know if yoga and Philly goes together, but I don't want to get into that debate. Well, Julianna, thanks so much for stopping by to chat. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in the Pacific Northwest. And goodbye for now.
JULIANNA LEMIEUX: All right, thanks, Jonathan. Bye.
JONATHAN: Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING]