David S. Millington, born in the United Kingdom, was trained as a chemist. After graduation from Liverpool University and postdoctoral studies in Urbana Illinois, and Cardiff, Wales (UK), he first spent five years at Micromass Ltd, Altrincham (UK) and then moved on to the USA. He was visiting professor and research associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapell Hill (NC) and continued as Medical Research Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center.
Dr.Millington spent his research on the application of new techniques in mass spectrometry and the development of new methods for biomarker discovery and diagnosis of metabolic diseases.. This eventually led to the development and application of fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry methods to newborn screening.
Dr.Millington is the (co-)author of around 150 papers and some 40 additional invited book chapters.
Mohamed S. Rashed, born in Egypt, was trained as a pharmacist in Alexandria, Egypt and Houston (TX), USA, and received his PhD in Metabolism and Toxicology from the University of Washington, Seattle (WA), USA. He is currently Director of the National Laboratory for Newborn Screening, Deputy Chairman, Department of Genetics, Research Centre, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The work of David Millington and co-workers at Duke on FAB-MS/MS attracted his attention and through further research he and his co-workers introduced automated electrospray MS/MS technology to the field and proved that it can be used for organic acids, amino acids and fatty acids oxidation defects. Dr. Rashed and his team further developed the first software algorithm dedicated to data reduction of metabolic profiles and flagging of abnormal results. He also managed to improve sample preparation procedure and convert it into a microplate batch process. These modification paved the way for the wide acceptance of the ms/ms technology in expanded newborn screening programs across the globe.
Dr.Rashed is the (co-)author of 90 peer-reviewed papers, numerous abstracts and invited book chapters.