Biological, Medical, and Clinical Analysis

HPLC 2007 was held in Ghent, Belgium in June. Last month, columnist Ron Majors summarized some the important column developments as well as other Symposium highlights. This month, he winds up coverage with additional highlights in the areas of technology and applications. Among the topics covered are stationary phase preparation and characterization, multi-dimensional and comprehensive LC, temperature studies, detectors and an application overview.

Leipziger Messe, organisers of L.A.B. - the trade fair and conference devoted to analysis, bio and laboratory equipment - have announced that the show will host 88 exhibitors from countries including the UK, US, France, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, and Germany. L.A.B. takes place from 2-4 October 2007 at ExCeL London.

Waters Corporation (Milford, Massachusetts) and Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd (Mumbai, India) recently announced a joint cooperative agreement that provides innovative analytical laboratory equipment designed to enhance research quality service and business solutions for Lambda and its clients.

Science Daily, a website that features news revolving around the sciences, has published an article that describes new chromatographic techniques for the analysis of pesticides and antibiotics in food and beverage samples.

Nanostream, provider of products and services that increase productivity in laboratories at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, extends its global reach to Europe by establishing a sales and support office in The Netherlands.

Reuters Health has published an article that describes how Dr. Ping Wang of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, and his colleagues used solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography (GC) to analyze exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) markers to help with the diagnosis of lung cancer.

The Victoria Advocate (Victoria, TX) published an article about the random testing of high school student-athletes in the Texas public school system. The article is entitled "No Steroid Test is Foolproof" and focuses on the process of drug testing using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).

This month's Market Profile looks at single-cell PCR, an application of PCR technology, which deals with the nucleic acid in single cells rather than in a tissue sample or a pool of homogenous cells.

The evaluation of the state of a biological sample before starting the complex analyses is a crucial step in proteomics studies. This paper compares planar polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and capillary on-the-chip SDS GE (CGE-on-the-chip) in terms of the speed of analysis, sensitivity and flexibility. Snake venoms, which are heterogeneous with high bioactivity and consist mainly of proteins with a molecular weight mass range below 100 kDa, were investigated. CGE-on-the-chip was found to be a faster and more stable technique, providing more information than classical SDS-PAGE. CGE-on-the-chip was also capable of detecting many compounds over a broad molecular weight mass range whereas the SDS-PAGE is more time-consuming and provides acceptable resolution either in the very low (below 17 kDa) or in the mid- to high-molecular mass region (16–200 kDa) depending on the gel/buffer-system selected.

Single-cell PCR is an application of PCR technology, which deals with the nucleic acid in single cells rather than in a tissue sample or a pool of homogenous cells. While single-cell amplification has been recognized almost as long as the PCR technology itself, it was not considered a very efficient technique due to uncontrollable circumstances such as the lack of available primers and efficient cell-lysing techniques, which only allowed a small quantity of cell DNA to be amplified.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced that its informatics solutions have won Scientific Computing's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards in four categories.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic polymeric materials that mimic immunosorbents. They are widely used as sorbents for solid-phase extraction (SPE). The most common way to synthesize them is bulk polymerization because of its simplicity and versatility. This produces a hard monolith that has to be ground and sieved to obtain particles in the desired size range. However, the partial loss of the materials as fine dusts; the irregular shape of the particles produced and their wide size distribution, have led to a search for different polymerization methods to offset the drawbacks of the bulk polymerization process.

LC–MS–MS methods for the unambiguous identification and quantification of pesticides in complex matrix samples are well known and widely used. Triple quadrupole systems have proven useful for this task because of their high specificity in MS–MS mode and their low detection limits. However, working in targetted MS–MS mode prevents the detection of other compounds.

Analysis by mass spectrometry (MS) of integral membrane proteins and those associated with membrane is an important aspect of proteomics.

Peptide mapping is one of the preferred techniques for the comprehensive characterization of biopharmaceutical products and is often the analytical method of choice for studying a protein's primary structure.

The complexity of the systems that are used vary from standard GC configurations to assess the effectiveness of protective clothing to trace analysis of biomedical samples with complex GC configuration.

This installment of "Sample Prep Perspectives" discusses techniques for the reduction/depletion of high-abundance proteins.

The concept of membrane-controlled processes is widespread in nature. Nearly all biological mechanisms concerning mass transport and exchange are regulated by membrane barriers and a variety of technical and biotechnological applications have been devised based on this mechanism. Membrane applications in analytical chemistry are geared towards the enrichment of target substances from an aqueous solution or the separation of compounds from a complex matrix. This article describes membrane-assisted extraction processes to separate traces of polar pharmaceutical substances the so called emerging micropollutants from aqueous samples. Basic prospects and examples of membrane-supported extractions are presented.

Emerging as a complementary analytical tool to LC-MS, LC-ICP-MS brings added value to the determination of inorganic element containing molecules of biological importance.

Enabling targeted quantitative proteomics applications and hypothesis-driven inquiries will help researchers to understand how proteins function in living systems. The discovery and validation of small molecule and protein-based biomarkers, and the eventual translation of these discoveries from the research lab to the clinic, involves robust mass spectrometry (MS) systems and software that make it easier for technicians to perform routine sample analyses on liquid chromatography (LC)–MS-MS systems, which continue to be used in an increasing number of both protein and small molecule analysis applications.

This article demonstrates the improved robustness of a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry assay achieved by utilizing the combined selectivity of high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry and highly selective reaction monitoring.

Serum protein profiling using mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the most promising approaches for biomarker identification.

Mass spectrometry has long been a preferred tool for protein identification and biomarker discovery, but preparation of biological samples remains a challenge. Hindrances include the wide range of protein concentrations, sample complexity, and loss or alteration of important proteins due to sample handling. This article describes recent developments in sample fractionation technologies that are overcoming these challenges in interesting ways and are enabling in-depth proteomic studies that were not possible in the past.

September 2006. In analytical chemistry, the continual quest for enhanced sensitivity and specificity - in gas chromatography (GC), this can be equated to separation power - remain the common goal in the development of new analytical methodologies. Today, GC is still the most widely used method for the analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds. When coupled with the right choice of detector for the specific application, a wide linearity range and low limit of detection (LOD) can be met. For GC analyses, many approaches can be used to achieve greater sensitivity and lower LOD. They can be classified broadly into four categories: improved sampling (sample preparation) strategies; sample introduction methods; improved chromatographic performance; and alternative (selective–sensitive) detection transducers. This article provides an up-to-date review of existing and emerging chromatographic innovations, based upon these four strategies, that will improve sensitivity and detection limits of trace..

Applied Biosystems has joined the Genographic Project as a supporting sponsor for the generation of one of the world's largest databases of information, which will reveal the sources of humankind's diversity. The company has signed a multi-year agreement to provide laboratory research equipment and services to each of the ten participating global research centres. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Midazolam is a central nervous system depressant that is commonly used as a sedative before surgical or other medical procedures.

This article looks at current practices in bioanalytical chemistry by examining and critically assessing the various parameters that can be altered to achieve high-speed results with high resolution in LC–MS applications. The decision to opt for gradient or isocratic elution is also discussed.

An increasingly available and attractive clinical analysis method, LC?MS nevertheless fails to directly benefit from the knowledge and experience of clinicians steeped in the immunoassay tradition.

This installment of "Milestones in Chromatography" discusses the events leading to the development of the amino acid analyzer near the end of the 1950s at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research by Moore, Stein, and Spackman.