Sixty Years of Pittcon

Pittcon 2009 will be held from March 8–13, 2009, at McCormick Place South, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Pittcon is the most comprehensive annual meeting on laboratory science in the world, offering a first-class laboratory product exposition, a diverse, high-quality technical programme, a series of in-depth educational programmes and invaluable peer-to-peer networking opportunities.

Pittcon typically attracts an international audience with conferees, speakers and exhibitors from more than 100 countries. With its central location and close proximity to O'Hare International Airport, Pittcon 2009 provides easy access for international visitors and is expected to welcome more than 2800 attendees from outside of North America.

Instrumentation and applications in all phases of chromatography will be well represented in the technical programme and exposition. There will be more than 800 technical sessions and posters covering traditional chromatography — HPLC, UPLC, UHPLC, IC, GC, GPC, SFC, TLC, HPTLC — as well as many new hyphenated chromatography techniques, including LC–MS–MS, GC–MS, UPLC–MS–MS, HPLC–HRGC–MS, LC–MS–LTQ-Orbitrap, ECD–HPLC, CE–MS, HILIC–LCMS–IT–TOF, LC ICP–MS, LC–TOF–MS and SPE–LC–MS–MS.

Educational Opportunities in Chromatography

Pittcon 2009 will provide a valuable opportunity to learn, exchange ideas and see what's new in the world of chromatography and general laboratory science. There will be an amazing array of educational opportunities through new product forums and an extensive technical programme, consisting of poster sessions, invited symposia, contributed oral presentations, award symposia and conferee networking sessions. There will be an array of short courses dedicated to chromatography techniques and applications, including:

• Hydrophobic Interaction Chromatography — the Other Side of Reversed Phase HPLC

• Basic HPLC: Fundamentals, Applications and Troubleshooting

• Practical Gas Chromatography: Packed and Capillary Columns

• Designing Gas Delivery Systems for Optimal Performance for Gas Chromatography Applications

• Supercritical Fluid Chromatography in the Pharmaceutical Industry

• Basic HPLC Method Development

• The Possibilities of GC–MS in the Analysis of a Huge Number of Compounds from One Solution by a Single Injection: Waste, River, Drinking Waters, Plants, Fruits, Vegetables, Honeys, etc.

• LC–MS Strategies for the Identification of Impurities, Degradants and Metabolites.

The Life Sciences and "Omics" Research

The rapid advances in "omics" research — genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics — in the past decade are, in part, being driven by new developments in liquid chromatography (LC) instrumentation, capillary electrophoresis (CE) and other separation methods coupled with various types of mass spectrometry (MS) detection as well as sophisticated bioinformatics strategies.

With its ability to rapidly identify large numbers of biochemicals in complex mixtures, MS has emerged as the preferred method for in-depth characterization of protein components in biological systems. Advances in bioinformatics, cellular databases and techniques to manage the large amounts of data generated by MS analyses have given researchers additional tools to significantly speed up their "omics" research.

At Pittcon 2009, all of these technologies will be on display and researchers from academia and industry will present the latest "omics" applications using these sophisticated instruments and software. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• Driving Biological Discovery using Advanced Mass Spectrometry

• Beyond Protein Identification, Making Sense of Proteomic Data

• Quality Instead of Quantity: Simplifying Top Down and Middle Down Protein Identification by Recording High-Resolution Tandem Mass Spectra on a High Throughput Basis

• Ultrahigh Mass Resolution and Mass Accuracy: What's Possible, What's Not and What It's Good For

• "In Vitro" Metabolite Identification Using High Resolution LC–MS, LC–MSⁿ and Online H/D Exchange Methodologies

• Recent Advances in Glycomic Quantification: Profiling at High Sensitivity

• Pushing the Performance Boundaries of LC–MS–MS Bioanalysis: On the Edge of Reason

ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Programme

The American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry (ACS DAC) will once again co-programme with Pittcon and are presenting five invited symposia among other technical sessions and posters:

• Biological Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis

• Evolution of Modern Chromatography: Celebration of 25 Years of the Subdivision of Chromatography and Separation Chemistry

• New Dimensions in Multidimensional Separations

• Pressurized Fluids in Analytical Separations Technology

• The Future of HPLC-Method Development: Quality by Design — Evaluating the Control Space of Robust HPLC Methods

Plenary Lecture and Pittcon Heritage Award

The Pittcon 2009 Sunday programme will be highlighted by George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University. Dr. Whitesides will deliver the plenary lecture on Paper Diagnostics — Using First World Science in Developing Economies. The lecture will focus on two exciting new technologies: microfluidic systems based on patterned paper and microanalytical systems using magnetic levitation. Prior to the Plenary Lecture, the prestigious Pittcon Heritage Award will be presented to Alfred R. Bader, Founder of Aldrich Chemical Company (now Sigma-Aldrich) for his outstanding contributions to the scientific community.

Awards for Technical Achievements

Among the many prestigious scientific awards presented at Pittcon 2009 will be the Bomen-Michelson award, which will be presented to Professor Martin Quack of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich, for his contributions in vibrational, molecular, Raman and electronic spectroscopy. The 2009 Dal Nogare Award recipient for excellence in chromatography will be Dr. Frantisek Svec, the facility director of the Molecular Foundry at the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Product Exposition

On the exposition floor, conferees will have the unique opportunity to visit more than 1 000 exhibitors and see first hand the latest developments in chromatography instrumentation, columns and supplies. They will be able to speak with experts involved in a variety of applications in life science, pharmaceutical science, environmental science, food science and more. Recognized government policy makers will also be on hand to discuss the latest government regulations and guidelines.

New Product Forums

Some of the latest developments in scientific instrumentation and equipment can be seen in the New Product Forums, which will be held throughout the day from Monday–Wednesday. A few of the products to be presented include:

• Centrifugal SFC Fraction Collector and Simultaneous Sample Concentration System

• Disposable Bioreactor

• Man-Portable GC–MS System for Detection and Identification of Semi-Volatile and Volatile Organic Compounds

• Ultra Inert Capillary GC Columns

• Scalable Modular HPLC System

• High-Resolution Hybrid Mass Spectrometer with Electron Capture Dissociation (ECD)

• Elemental Analyser

• Automated Methyl-Mercury Analyzer using Gas-Chromatography and Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

• Particle Size Analysers using Microscopy Techniques

• Fast, Highly Sensitive FTIR-Based Analyzer for CWA & TIC Monitoring

• Fast Scan Differential Scanning Calorimeters

• Fully Configurable Sample Prep System for SPE, GPC Cleanup and Concentration

• Automatic Dynamic Headspace for the Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Different Matrices

• Chromatography Software

The Green Corner

Pittcon 2009 features several new programmes and services. There will be a new exhibitor area called the Green Corner, which will complement the Life Science, Informatics and New Exhibitor specialty areas on the exposition floor. The Green Corner is dedicated to companies specializing in environmentally-friendly chemistry solutions, resource conservation and pollution prevention techniques. Some of the products and technologies on display on the "Green Corner," include:

• Oil and grease monitoring

• Solvent-free extraction

• Environmentally safe nanotechnology applications

• Environmentally friendly Greenstone lab surfaces

• Energy-saving fume hoods

Increased Conferee Networking Sessions

There will be more conferee networking sessions than in previous years. Introduced at Pittcon 2007, networking sessions have been very well received as another way that conferees can participate in informal face-to-face discussions and collaborate with colleagues on specific topics of interest.

Some of the networking sessions include:

• Bio-Fuels: Application, Transportation, Storage and Production

• Utilization of Newer LC and MS Technologies for Rapid Information Generation in Pharmaceutical Development

• HPLC of Soluble and Membrane Proteins

• Outsourcing in the Pharmaceutical Industry

• High Throughput Analysis in the Pharmaceutical Field

• Physical Characterization of Complex Biopharmaceutical Products using Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (Dynamic Light Scattering) — Probes for Protein Aggregation and Lipid Vesicle Dynamics

• State of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

• Analysis of Counterfeit and Substandard Drugs

• Harmonization and Integration of Quality Management — Is your lab or operations group waiting on the lab data and reviews?

• LIMS/LI: Management, Project, Implementation and Maintenance Issues

• Survey of Pharmaceuticals and other Organics in Water

• Capillary Electrophoresis involving Nano-structures

• Lab-on-a-Chip is a Beautiful Thing — but where are the Chips-in-the-Lab?

International Exhibitor-Distributor Facilitation

For conferees focused on developing or enriching their international business interests, Pittcon 2009 offers a new service called "Exhibitor-Distributor Facilitation." This networking service provides an efficient and easy way for exhibitors and distributors to connect during the conference and exposition. Interested individuals can simply register on the Pittcon Web site (www.pittcon.org) to use the service and help connect to appropriate business people.

International Assistance

The Pittcon web site also provides information for international conferees and includes important links to information and resources related to traveling to and visiting Chicago, obtaining Visas and dealing with the U.S. Customs authority http://www.pittcon.org/attendee/InternationalVisitors.html.

Date: March 8–13, 2009

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Registration URL:www.pittcon.org/register/index.html

Contact Info: Marian Nardozzi The Pittsburgh Conference 300 Penn Center Boulevard, Suite 332 Pittsburgh, PA 15235-5503

Phone: 412-825-3220 ext 203

Toll Free: 800-825-3221 ext. 203

Fax: 412-825-3224

Web site: www.pittcon.org

E-mail: info@pittcon.org