LCGC Europe-12-01-2005

By taking advantage of the benefits provided by normal-phase mode, highly productive and cost-effective strategies for high-throughput purification of drug discovery products have been developed in the analytical laboratories at Lilly-Spain. The straightforward scaling-up of generic protocols from an analytical to a preparative scale has yielded successful results not only when working in HPLC but also when transferring conditions to other standard low and medium pressure chromatographic systems that are routinely used by synthetic chemists.

The micropipette tip containing solid phases is a relatively new sample preparation format that permits the handling of microlitre and submicrolitre amounts of liquid samples using the techniques of solid-phase extraction, dialysis and enzyme digestion. Phases are packed, embedded or coated on the walls of the pipette, permitting liquid samples to be moved and transferred without undue pressure drop or plugging. This column reviews the latest technologies in micropipette tip sample preparation used in the study of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

There are two types of contamination that will ruin a column - physical and chemical.

Dr Perdita Barran from the University of Edinburgh has won the coveted Desty Memorial Award for Innovation in Separation Science. Her work involved the use of ion mobile mass spectrometry (IM–MS) to analyse proteins and peptides and involved custom-building an ion mobility mass spectrometer. The findings of the research could be useful in helping to develop new classes of antibiotics and drugs to treat diseases of the reproductive system.

Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to light-scattering, viscometer and refractive index detectors is a common technique used for the characterization of polymers. In this article the solution conformations of two chimeric IgG3 antibodies were studied using this coupled triple detection technique. Conclusions indicate that the results allow hydrodynamic modelling of the antibody structures.