Biological, Medical, and Clinical Analysis

This installment of "Directions in Discovery" will review current phosphorylation enrichment techniques with a focus on new developments.

This month's installment of "Column Watch" is the second part of a two-part series in which columnist Ron Majors examines the trends and highlights in columns and consumables at Pittcon 2008.

Reducing or, if possible, eliminating the use of organic solvents is an important goal in terms of environmental conservation, human health and the economy.

Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble prohormones that helps the body absorb calcium and maintain proper levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. A vitamin D deficiency results in impaired bone mineralization and leads to bone-softening diseases, such as rickets in children and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults, as well as autoimmune and nervous system diseases. A vitamin D overdose can raise blood levels of calcium and cause gastrointestinal symptoms and kidney disease. High blood levels of calcium also can cause heart rhythm abnormalities and calcinosis, the deposition of calcium and phosphate in the body's soft tissues.

Pyrethroids are synthetic chemical compounds similar to the natural chemical pyrethrins and commonly used as household insecticides and insect repellents. Typically, pyrethroids possess multiple stereogenic centers and individual stereoisomer can have widely differing biological activities. Rapid, reliable, and precise determination of the isomeric ratios of these chiral pesticides is of great importance not only for product formulation but also for the subsequent study on the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of the pesticides. High performance liquid chromatography with chiral stationary phases (CSPs) has been the predominant tool for separating chiral pesticides. However, the complexity of the pyrethroids resulting from the multiple stereogenic centers presents a special challenge for baseline resolution of all isomers. Numerous CSPs, many of which are not available commercially, have been created to separate synthetic pyrethroids with varying degree of success (1-7).

A total of fourteen cuts were defined because the retention time difference between several skin sensitizors was only slight.

This month's installment of "Column Watch" is the first of a two-part series in which columnist Ron Majors examines the trends and highlights in columns and consumables at Pittcon 2008.

In the last year, two new protein depletion products have been introduced, and these will be the focus of this month's installment of "Directions in Discovery."

This article aims to demonstrate the unique capability of resin-based mixed-mode solid-phase extraction (SPE) to achieve efficient extraction of basic drugs from plasma. Optimized pore size of the method minimizes retention of high molecular weight matrix components present in the biological fluid samples. The interferences are removed, ensuring extremely clean extracts for subsequent liquid chromatography?mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) analysis.

This article describes the method development and performance characteristics of the validated LFI assay and evaluates stability in human plasma.

Selective sample preparation techniques are particularly attractive for the analysis of trace amounts of small molecules in complex matrices. In this month's instalment, columnist Ron Majors covers the field of immunoextraction, a technique that employs immobilized antibodies to selectively capture specific analytes using molecular recognition via antibody–antigen interactions. Recently, the introduction of commercial products for specific high-volume environmental and food safety applications should spur further applications of this technique.

The 59th Annual Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon 2008) will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, from 2–6 March, 2008. Pittcon 2008's Technical Program will be in the format of invited symposia, organized contributed oral sessions, contributed oral sessions, workshops, new product forums and poster sessions to cover the latest developments in the traditional and emerging disciplines of analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy. Following on from last year's success, the networking sessions will be expanded.

BMC Pediatrics reports on a study characterizing total homocysteine (tHcy) levels at birth in preterm and term infants and identifing associations with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and other neonatal outcomes such as mortality, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and thrombocytopenia.

In this month?s installment, columnist Ron Majors covers the field of immunoextraction, a technique that employs immobilized antibodies to selectively capture specific analytes using molecular recognition via antibody?antigen interactions. Recently, the introduction of commercial products for specific high-volume environmental and food safety applications has spurred further applications of this technique.

Polymer-based columns still are widely used in size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and ion chromatography-ion-exchange chromatography - they have always been used in these modes, even back in 1987.

Assay Depot, an Internet marketplace for drug discovery services, today announced that Nanostream, provider of chromatography products and services to increase productivity in analytical laboratories at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, will join the company?s service provider network.

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.