We are pleased to report that the recent ABRF meeting in San Diego was very successful. Both the Friday night reception and the Saturday meeting were very well attended, with about 275 people on the average. The Monday night workshop on Peptide Libraries, which was co-sponsored by the ABRF and the Protein Society, was also extremely well attended. We would like to express our gratitude to those who gave their time to produce and present a superb series of workshops and presentations and especially to the attendees, whose interest and support made it a success.
As a result of discussions and interest expressed at the meeting, we have decided it is time to initiate the formation of a research committee on carbohydrate analysis. These efforts will initially be led by Steve Carr and I am sure he would be interested in receiving your input. Steve is also organizing a major workshop for the ABRF which will be presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. The workshop will focus on the role of mass spectrometry in the types of services provided by ABRF member laboratories. This represents a new venue for the ABRF and we are quite excited about the prospects.
The National Center for Research Resources, which is one of the major instrumentation funding agencies in the federal government, is presently beginning a process to develop a strategic plan for critical research resources and technologies for biomedical and behavioral research supported by the NIH (Federal Register, 58, 27294). As part of this process, the NCRR is forming a panel to assist in the strategic planning process. The recent decline in instrumentation funding underscores the importance of this effort (see the March and June 1993 Newsletters for articles on this subject). We are pleased to announce that the ABRF will have at least one member of the Executive Board on the NCRR panel. We will keep you informed of this process as information becomes available.
Finally, just a reminder that we are always interested in your input. Please don't hesitate to contact a member of the Executive Board with your comments.
Gregory A. Grant
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