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Researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens have used liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to understand changes in licit and illicit drug consumption patterns following the major socioeconomic changes Greece has experienced.

Incognito suggests that chromatographers are not exploring the full potential of their “state-of-the-art” instruments.

Ultrafast gas chromatography (UFGC) offers analysis times 5–20 times faster than conventional GC, with comparable sample capacity and resolution. These factors along with greatly reduced energy consumption make UFGC a valuable approach to explore in many application areas. This article describes the principles and practical uses of ultrafast GC and the key considerations in method development using this technique.

The International Symposium on Polymer Analysis and Characterization (ISPAC) will be held in Linz, Austria, on the 11–14 June 2017. This preview offers a flavour of what to expect.

Click the title above to open The Column March 07, 2017 North American issue, Volume 13, Number 4, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open The Column March 07, 2017 Europe & Asia issue, Volume 13, Number 4, in an interactive PDF format.

This Monday afternoon session will be presided over by Eduard Rogatsky of the Wadsworth Center, DEHS.

This afternoon, the winners of the LCGC Awards will be honored in an oral symposium at Pittcon. Pat Sandra of the Research Institute for Chromatography will receive the 2017 LCGC Lifetime Achievement Award at 1:30, and Deirdre Cabooter of the University of Leuven will receive the 2017 LCGC Emerging Leader Award at 3:40 pm, just after the break.

A short treatment of what to consider when choosing the appropriate sample solvent so you can be better informed when developing, optimizing, transferring, or troubleshooting your GC methods.

PALME almost eliminates consumption of hazardous solvents.

A decade of LCGC awards has seen some of chromatography’s modern icons and rising stars honoured. In this 10th year of the award, we are pleased to honour two superb separation scientists: Pat Sandra, the winner of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography Award, and Deirdre Cabooter, the 2017 Emerging Leader in Chromatography. For the third consecutive year, the LCGC awards will be presented at an oral symposium held at Pittcon 2017. This year’s session, which were held on Monday 6 March, featured talks by both award winners and Milos Novotny of Indiana University, Jim Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Gert Desmet of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

When considering column efficiency, more is not always better. We look at some ways to quickly estimate the effects of changes in column length and particle diameter rather than trying the experiments in the laboratory.

Gas chromatographers can control several variables that affect their separations: carrier-gas flow, column temperature, column dimensions, and stationary-phase chemistry. When faced with less than optimum resolution or separation speed, a strategy of changing just one variable at a time can be more productive than trying to hit the goal in one attempt. This month’s “GC Connections” examines how to use such a plan to obtain better gas chromatography results.

The second meeting of the “Emerging Separations Technologies” series, organized by The Chromatographic Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry Separation Science Group, will be held on Thursday 30 March at RSC Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.

This application note outlines a simple, fast, and cost‑effective QuEChERS-based method for the determination of limonin in citrus juice. Limonin is extracted from a variety of juice samples using acetonitrile and citrate-buffered salts. The sample extract undergoes cleanup by dispersive-SPE (dSPE) using primary‑secondary amine (PSA), C18, and graphitized carbon black (GCB) to remove unwanted matrix components, including sugars, acids, and pigments, and to yield a clear sample extract. Analysis is performed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) using a Selectra® C18 HPLC column (although high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC]–UV can also be used).

Quality and consistency in reagents is critical to successful drug discovery and development. When targeting a particular protein of interest, in vitro experiments should be performed with proteins of biological properties similar to those for in vivo tests. It is important that molecularity, purity, shape, and degree of heterogeneity remain the same when any alterations are made to the model protein or the formulation buffer. Multi-angle light scattering (MALS) combined with size-exclusion chromatography (SEC-MALS) is a very useful technique to monitor the solution properties of the protein as changes to reagents are made.

In this application note, an antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) was analyzed using a TSKgel® Butyl-NPR column, the least hydrophobic of the TSKgel HIC columns. Both unconjugated and drug conjugated Trastuzumab samples were successfully separated with baseline resolution. The baseline resolution enabled an easy integration and quantification of different drug pay loads in ADC characterization.

Projects in drug discovery and safety constantly aim at development of novel and safer drugs, therapeutics, and diagnostics. During active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development, drug stereoisomerism is recognized as an issue having clinical and regulatory implications. Enantiomers have essentially identical physical and chemical properties, while potentially showing large differences in toxicity.

Chromatographic techniques with mass spectrometric detection are important enablers in modern drug discovery. With the development of robust instrumentation and implementation of user-friendly software (or software packages), non-expert users can now walk up to easily accessible advanced chromatographic systems and perform experiments at their own convenience. Although remarkable improvements in robustness and ease-of-use have happened since the introduction of the first high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS) systems, the instrument performance still needs to be qualified and monitored to ensure consistent high-quality results. This article will demonstrate how a simple test mixture of carefully selected compounds can facilitate both the development of generic ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS) methods and automated performance monitoring of multiple instruments located in separate laboratories and buildings.

Interest in chromatography using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) has continued to build in recent years. Adoption of the technique has been slowed by experiences of poor reproducibility. In particular, reequilibration times in HILIC have been reported as being exceptionally long as compared to reversed-phase chromatography. In this study, reequilibration times in HILIC for both aqueous–organic gradients and buffer gradients are systematically explored. The results not only promise to improve method development practices, but also provide insight into HILIC retention mechanisms across mechanistically differing polar stationary phases.

A brief preview of this year’s ASMS conference, taking place June 4–8, 2017, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Click the title above to open the LCGC Asia Pacific March 2017 regular issue, Vol 20, No 1, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open the LCGC Europe March 2017 regular issue, Vol 30, No 3, in an interactive PDF format.

Click the title above to open the LCGC North America March 2017 regular issue, Vol 35 No 3, in an interactive PDF format.