With this issue of ABRF NEWS, the activities of the 1992 AAA committee come to a close. By now each participant in the 1992 AAA study should have received an analysis of their data. This is the second year the committee has provided this information in an attempt to help each facility evaluate their amino acid analysis capabilities. A manuscript generated from the 1992 study should have been received by each facility director. To enhance the educational component of the yearly AAA study, the committee felt that ABRF facilities that submitted high quality amino acid analyses in the 1992 study could potentially provide detailed protocols or ' tricks of the trade" that other facilities might find useful as they strive to improve their own capabilities. To this end, and through its independent collaborator that returned AAA data to our 1992 study participants, the AAA committee invited several anonymous facilities with exemplary results to contribute methods articles to ABRF NEWS. Two of these facilities have agreed to publish AAA procedures in the newsletter and we look forward to their articles in an upcoming issue.
The AAA committee is now planning for 1993. All current members of the AAA committee will participate in the 1993 committee. Two subjects that previous studies have not addressed are unusual amino acids and post-translationally modified amino acids. After lengthy discussions we have chosen to target phosphorylated amino acids in the 1993 study. The sample and format for the 1993 AAA study have yet to be decided, but it is our intent to provide a sample which can be analyzed without great difficulty so that each facility has an opportunity to address these important amino acids.
The committee is also recruiting new members to replace those members that will be retiring at the end of the 1993 study. If you are interested please contact any member of the AAA committee.
Return to the The ABRF Home Page