Fellowship program led by Donnelly Centre faculty member Hannes Röst trains underrepresented researchers in mass spectrometry

A global initiative to increase diversity among researchers working in mass spectrometry, called the OpenMS Fellowship Program, has recently wrapped up after successfully recruiting and training new talent in computational biology. The program, initiated by Hannes Röst, associate professor of molecular genetics, and organized by Mohammed Alhigaylan, a graduate student in the Röst lab, has helped seven scientists develop programming skills needed to conduct research in proteomics and metabolomics.

The program launched in 2022 through a collaborative effort with the OpenMS team and Females in Mass Spectrometry (FeMS), with the goal of creating more opportunities for people from underrepresented groups to gain experience working with tools in computational mass spectrometry and advance their careers within the field. These groups include women and Indigenous and racialized people, as well as those with disabilities and those who are part of the LGBTQ2S+ community. Candidates were early-career researchers with little exposure to computational methods.

Growing the open-source software community

With support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the program taught participants how to use and adapt programming software for their research questions. Fellows were exposed to the large number of open-source tools housed within OpenMS codebase and trained to develop mass spectrometry-related software.

“Mass spectrometry is a sensitive high-throughput technique for direct quantitative measurement of metabolites, which perform essentially all cellular tasks required for life,” said Röst, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Mass Spectrometry-based Personalized Medicine. “This technique is used in a wide range of fields, including forensics, biomedicine, systems biology and ecology. Given the current and potential future impact of mass spectrometry—especially as tools and processes become more advanced—equitable access to this technology is necessary to ensure the growth of the research community.”

Between 2023-2024, seven Fellows were hosted for a summer semester at computational mass spectrometry labs around the world, including in Austria, Belgium and Germany. The 2023 Fellows were Charlotte Adams, Bethelhem Almaw, Kristina Gomoryova, Achanta Nagendra Sai Kumar and Carolina Gonzalez Marin. The 2024 Fellows were Luojiao Huang and Marina Pominova.

Providing hands-on training through local initiatives

Another aspect of the program, beyond the summer fellowship, was two workshops that aimed to teach the local research community computational skills to apply to mass spectrometry data.

The first workshop took place at University of Toronto’s Myhal Centre on November 8-9, 2023. It was led by Samuel Wein, Executive Chairman at OpenMS and Scientist at the University of Tübingen, consisting of a lecture on liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, an introduction to OpenMS software tools and hands-on tutorials on basic manipulation of mass spectrometry data and analysis of proteomics and metabolomics datasets using Python.

The second workshop took place at the University of Johannesburg on February 17 – 28, 2025. This time, Wein led lectures on the fundamentals of proteomics and metabolomics and database search as well as hands-on tutorials on OpenMS and protein identification. The workshop also covered advanced quantitative analysis and data visualization.

“These workshops have provided an invaluable opportunity to reach students who might not otherwise have access to such training,” said Wein. “Our curriculum equips them with practical skills that support publication of their research and advancement of their careers.”

Recognizing women in mass spectrometry

In addition to the summer fellowship and workshops, the OpenMS team is working with FeMS to support women in the field with the Rising Star in Computational Mass Spectrometry Research Award. The awards are valued at $2,000 each, with one award presented to a researcher annually for five years.

The aim of the award is to inspire underrepresented scientists to pursue research in computational mass spectrometry by highlighting those who have found success in the field. The first two recipients of the award were Lisa Boatner, in 2023, and Helena Mannochio Russo, in 2024.

“While the Rising Star Award program is ongoing, the rest of our initiative has come to a close,” said Röst. “This was a huge undertaking by the OpenMS team, who ensured that every aspect of the program was seen through to the end. We have learned a lot over the last few years, since this was our first time executing something of this nature, and we hope it made an impact for those who were involved in the summer fellowship, workshops and award program.”