All News

A group of researchers has investigated the impact of combined sewer overflow (CSO) on pharmaceutical and illicit drug use in central London using liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC–HRMS).

MilliporeSigma has announced the winners of its Advance Biotech Grant programme in North America.

A biennial meeting jointly organized by the Environmental Chemistry Group, Separation Sciences Group, and the Water Science Forum, and discussing the latest advances in the analysis of complex environmental matrices, is now in its eighth year. The most recent iteration of the event occurred on Friday 22 February 2019 in the Science Suite, Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, in London, UK. This meeting review offers an overview of what is happening in the industry.

A preview of the upcoming 30th International Symposium on Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis (PBA 2019), which is due to be held on 15–18 September 2019 at the Convention Centre of The Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel.

R.D. McDowall has written an excellent book on data integrity and data governance. Those who need to understand what this is should read the book and follow his advice. He has included both what the regulations and regulators say and what we need to do to be in compliance. This is a scalable approach with enhancements for larger items and shortcuts for smaller items, with numerous examples throughout the book.

Click the title above to open The Column July 2019 North American issue, Volume 15, Number 7, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open The Column July 2019 Europe & Asia issue, Volume 15, Number 7, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open the Current Trends In Mass Spectrometry July 2019 special issue in an interactive PDF format.

For liquid chromatography (LC) methods where the buffer pH and composition have an influence on retention, which buffer preparation method will provide the most repeatable results?

This instalment of “GC Connections” dives into temperature programming. First, the differences in peak widths and retention times between temperature programmed and isothermal chromatograms are examined. Why are all the peaks so sharp in temperature programmed GC, yet they get broader (and shorter) in isothermal GC? Next, we explore some early ideas about temperature programming and peak broadening that explain why the peaks are so sharp in temperature-programmed GC, and why the peak spacing is different from isothermal GC. Finally, we examine an important consequence of our ability to program temperature: the need for temperature programming in splitless and other injections that use “solvent effects” and other peak focusing mechanisms. These points are illustrated using several historical figures and chromatograms from the early days of GC.

The international, interdisciplinary workshop Solutions and Workflows in (Environmental) Molecular Screening and Analysis (SWEMSA 2019) will be held 21–23 October 2019 in the City Hall in Erding, Germany.

Click the title above to open the LCGC North America July 2019 issue, Volume 37, Number 7, in an interactive PDF format.

We examine the evolution of hybrid particle columns, highlighting examples of separations enabled by this technology.

The fundamentals of electron capture detectors, explained.

How has UHPLC has affected pharmaceutical research? The answer depends on your point of view.

In the pharmaceutical industry, the use of mass spectrometry in high-throughput experimentation (HTE) has increased, thanks to the technique’s speed, sensitivity, and selectivity. We systematically evaluate the applicability of multiple MS techniques for different types of HTE samples and purposes, reviewing the pros and cons, and provide practical recommendations, Illustrated by application case studies.

The development of analytical instrumentation for harsh terrestrial environments and outer planet space exploration exponentially increases instrument requirements-for features such as robustness, autonomous operation, and speed-and poses unique system integration challenges. Here, we explore the use of laser thermal desorption coupled to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (LTD-GC×GC) for use with a compact, high-resolution mass spectrometer for challenging applications.

Exosomes are small lipid membrane-bound extracellular vesicles, on the order 30 – 150 nm in diameter, which are shed by normal and tumor cells in the body. They are circulating within your body and can be isolated from virtually any biological fluid. Exosomes released from tumor cells have been shown to be enriched in certain proteins. These nanobodies hold significant promise for the discovery of cancer biomarkers, for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and for biomarker quantitation.

The Wednesday afternoon session “Metabolomics: Untargeted Profiling,” will be held 2:30–4:30 pm in the Murphy Ballroom. The session, chaired by Elizabeth J. Want of Imperial College London, in London, United Kingdom, addresses six developments in this area.

A morning session today on “Environmental: Innovative Approaches and Instrumentation,” will be held 8:30–10:30 am in Room B308–309. The session, chaired by Pierangela Palma of the University of Urbino, in Urbino, Italy, includes talks on a range of mass spectrometry techniques.

“Forensics: Innovations and Applications” will be held this afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 pm in Room B405-407. The session, chaired by Travis M. Falconer, a chemist with the Forensic Chemistry Center of the US Food & Drug Administration in Cincinnati, Ohio, includes topics on analytes ranging from explosives to larvae.

Modern HPLC method development is dominated by a small number of pH adjusting reagents and buffers that are prevalent even when the method uses UV detection. This is driven primarily by the requirements of mass spectrometry.

The Research Awards will be presented today, at the beginning of the Biemann Medal Lecture session in the Murphy Ballroom, at 4:45 pm.

The Tuesday morning oral sessions on “Environmental: Emerging Contaminants” -in Honor of Ron Hites-will be held 8:30-10:30 am in Room B308–309. The session, chaired by Susana Y. Kimura of the Department of Chemistry at University of Calgary in Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, addresses analytical strategies for a range of environmental contaminants.

The Tuesday afternoon session on “Instrumentation: Innovative Separations Approaches Coupled to MS,” will be held 2:30-4:30 pm in the Auditorium of Building A. The session, chaired by Xing-Fang Li of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, addresses analyses related to biology, proteomics, environmental studies, petroleum, and more.