The Column-06-19-2015

In developing countries, access to medicine is often limited. To make matters worse, widespread counterfeiting often means that even when patients get access to drugs, the drugs are of poor quality. Dr. Mélisande Bernard, of the Agence Générale des Equipements et Produits de Santé, the technical and pharmaceutical service of the public hospital system of Paris, France (Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris), is helping to address this problem by developing chromatographic methods to detect substandard cardiovascular drugs in Africa. She recently spoke to us about this work.

Temperature affects not only retention but also relative retention in gas chromatography (GC) and therefore, when we change temperature, we also change the selectivity of the separation. This is true as we alter the isothermal separation temperature, but also as we change the slope of the temperature program gradient.

Incognito has witnessed the rise of biochromatography and it looks exciting!

A new study hopes to highlight that poison was used as far back as 30,000 years ago. Dr Valentina Borgia, a specialist in Palaeolithic hunting weapons and Marie Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, is using liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (LC–MS) to analyze prehistoric weaponry.

Scientists have published a novel method to detect multiple celiac disease-epitopes in wheat extracts simultaneously using liquid chromatography–multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (LC–MRM–MS).

Methadone, a drug prescribed for managing the symptoms of heroin withdrawal and chronic pain, has been linked to the formation of the carcinogenic compound N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in drinking water. Understanding which compounds contribute to NDMA formation in water could lead to tailored wastewater treatment approaches to remove the risk of contamination.

Novasep (Pompey, France) has signed two partnership agreements with Allied Laboratories (Kobe, Japan) and AR Brown (Tokyo, Japan) to extend its presence in Japan.

Anthias Consulting (Cambridgeshire, UK) is celebrating 10 years since it was founded in June 2005.

Sciex (Massachusetts, USA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National University of Singapore to promote the research of oncology biomarker discovery and development.

Click the title above to open The Column June 19, 2015 Europe & Asia issue, Volume 11, Number 11, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open The Column June 19, 2015 North American issue, Volume 11, Number 11, in an interactive PDF format.

New Developments in the Analysis of Complex Environmental Matrices