Best of the Week: AI in Foodomics, HPLC 2024, and More

This week, LCGC International published a variety of articles on the hottest topics in chromatography and beyond. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most popular articles, according to our readers. Happy reading!

Using Artificial Intelligence in Foodomics: An HTC-18 Interview with Chiara Cordero

Alasdair Matheson

Chiara Cordero is a full professor of food chemistry at the University of Turin (Torino, Italy). Her passion is gas chromatography (1D-2D) and the unique opportunities GC plays in foodomics. Her research interests focus on the development of instrumental configurations and data processing tools for comprehensive two-dimensional GC in high-resolution profiling and fingerprinting of complex samples. Her focus is on food metabolomics and volatilomics, nutrimetabolomics, and sensomics. At HTC-18 in Leuven, Executive Editor of LCGC International, Alasdair Matheson, spoke to Chiara Cordero from the University of Turin about the evolving role of AI in separation science.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Drinking Water: An HTC-18 Interview with Leon Barron

Alasdair Matheson

Leon Barron leads the Emerging Chemical Contaminants team within the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London. His research focuses on the sources, risks, threats, and impacts of toxic chemical mixtures on environmental and public health. In particular, his analytical work focusses on rapid method development using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and gas chromatography–MS (GC–MS) for large-scale application to contaminants of emerging concern, including pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, pesticides, persistent organic chemicals (including PFAS), among others, in air, water, soil and biota. At HTC-18 in Leuven, Executive Editor of LCGC International, Alasdair Matheson, spoke to Leon Barron from Imperial College London about his innovative research focusing on modern chromatographic techniques for analyzing contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water.

Automated LC Method Development: An HTC-18 Interview with Bob Pirok

Alasdair Matheson

Bob Pirok is currently an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and focuses on the application of chemometrics to analytical chemistry with a special interest in method development and data analysis for multidimensional chromatography. His other areas of interest include retention modelling and (reaction) modulation techniques for LC×LC. Pirok is a visiting research professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in the group of Professor Dwight R. Stoll. Bob has received several international recognitions, including a Shimadzu Young-Scientist Award at HPLC 2015 in Beijing, the Young-Scientist-Award Lecture during the SCM-8 meeting in Amsterdam in 2017, the Csaba Horváth Young-Scientist Award at HPLC2017 Prague, the Journal of Chromatography Award during the ISCC Conference in Riva de Garda in 2018, and the SCM Award at the SCM-9 meeting in Amsterdam in 2019. Bob is member of the European Chemistry Thematic Network and an active member of LCGC International’s editorial advisory board (EAB).

Scientists from Merck, Novilytic Discuss Pharma Analysis at HPLC 2024

Aaron Acevedo

Separation science can be used to analyze finished drug products and ingredients quantitatively and qualitatively during the manufacturing process. This is achieved through the separation, quantification and identification of components in a mixture and can be used to reveal the identity of a drug and monitor the progress of a therapy on a disease. On Monday, July 22, at the 52nd International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques (HPLC 2024) conference in Denver, Colorado, researchers from industry presented on pharmaceutical analysis using a variety of different chromatography techniques. In this article, you’ll find an overview of some recent research presented by experts at the conference earlier this week.

Carol Robinson Awarded 2024 Lifetime Achievement European Inventor Award

Aaron Acevedo

Carol Robinson, professor of Chemistry from the University of Oxford, has received the 2024 European Inventor Award for Lifetime Achievement from the European Patent Office. She is the first ever British recipient of the award. Robinson's work in mass spectrometry and structural biology has improved our understanding of protein interactions. Her early work challenged the prevailing belief that proteins could not maintain structure outside of water. However, Robinson's determination and innovative approach to analysis proved that protein interactions could indeed be preserved and studied in the gaseous state. In this article, we look at Robinson’s career and share direct quotes about her view of her success.