LCGC Interviews

High quality, low cost is a standard mantra within the pharmaceutical industry, but with increasing structural complexity of drugs and drug candidates maintaining the core value of this mantra is becoming more difficult. Kanta Horie from Eisai Co., Ltd., recently spoke to The Column about the development of an intelligent peak deconvolution technique using multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) that allows accurate quantitation of multiple components with different absorbing spectra even if the peaks are not completely separated.

The Column spoke to Ashraf El-Sayed from the Plant and Food Research Institute in Lincoln, New Zealand, about his research into caterpillar-induced plant volatiles and the role of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) in his work.

Adrian Tordiffe from the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, is working to establish baseline metabolic profiles for captive and free-ranging cheetahs to investigate the unusual medical conditions that the animals develop in captivity. He spoke to The Column about his work and about the role that chromatography plays.

Eric Nelson discusses methods for analyzing halogenated transformation products of pharmaceuticals and other contaminants.

Separating and quantifying both volatile and nonvolatile compounds in complex mixtures is a costly and time-consuming process presenting significant technical challenges. Fabrice Gritti from the Instrument, Core Research, Fundamental Group at Waters Corporation discusses his team’s unique solution to this problem, combining high-vacuum technology and low-density fluid chromatography (LDFC) with carbon dioxide as a mobile phase for a rapid and complete baseline separation of both volatile and nonvolatile compounds on a single instrument, single column, and a single run without the associated loss of resolution.

Deirdre Cabooter is an emerging leader in chromatography known for her work exploring the possibilities and limitations of the kinetic plot method for comparing the kinetic performance of chromatographic separation methods and columns. Joining the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in 2011, where she is currently an associate professor, Cabooter has continued her stellar research and taken on responsibilities in the organization of the popular symposium series HTC. She recently spoke to LCGC about her career and work so far.

Can combining stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) extend the practical applications of SBSE? The Column spoke to Antonio Martin-Esteban of the Department of Environment of the National Institute of Research and Technology in Agricultural and Food Science (INIA) in Madrid, Spain, to find out more.

Pat Sandra is known for his expansive knowledge across a wide spectrum of analytical techniques, blending the world of academia and private enterprise, and bringing separation science into the mainstream consciousness. Combining analytical excellence, innovation, and a unique gift for problem solving into a career which has lasted almost 50 years. Sandra recently spoke to LCGC about his career and work.

The Column spoke to Rudolf Krska from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria, about the latest analytical techniques and challenges facing analysts involved in the evolving field of mycotoxin analysis.

A cross-disciplinary team of researchers in Tasmania from the fields of separation science, proteomics and metabolomics, immunology and zoology are on a mission to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction using metabolic fingerprinting of serum to identify biomarkers for Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). The Column spoke to Naama Karu, Rodrigo Hamede Ross, and Richard Wilson to find out more.

The aroma of a wine is an important part of the wine tasting experience. Angela Lopez-Pinar from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, has been investigating off-odours in wine using gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC–O). She recently spoke to us about this research.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) stretches over 2300 km and is composed of over 3000 individual reef systems. The health of the reef therefore often comes under international scrutiny. Hilton Swan from Southern Cross University in Australia has been investigating volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from the Great Barrier Reef using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). He recently spoke to us about this work.

Ion chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (IC-MS) does not follow the same rules as coupling other modes of liquid chromatography to mass spectrometry (LC–MS). Leon Barron from the Analytical & Environmental Science Division, at King’s College London, UK, reveals some of the misconceptions surrounding IC and discusses contemporary trends and novel applications for this inventive technique.

A balanced diet is one step closer to a healthy lifestyle. Samantha Duong from the Australian Government’s National Measurement Institute (NMI) has used gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC–FID) to measure phytosterols in fortified food. She recently spoke to us about this research.

Traditionally, the most common approach for protein quantification in bioanalysis (that is, analysis of a protein in a biological sample or system) has been to use ligand-binding assays. In recent years, however, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS-MS) methods have been increasingly adopted to monitor the fate of drugs in vivo, particularly for small-molecule drugs. The measurement of protein-based pharmaceuticals (biopharmaceuticals) is challenging, however, because proteins are susceptible to various modifications that can change their structure and biological activity. Rainer Bischoff of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands has been studying this challenge and exploring approaches to overcome it. He recently spoke to us about this work.

Discovering and identifying molecular biomarkers in large LC–MS data sets requires automation without loss of accuracy. Benjamin Van Mooy from the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution reveals a lipidomics strategy using LOBSTAHS to identify lipid, oxidized lipid, and oxylipin biomarkers in high mass accuracy HPLC– MS data.

Biopharmaceutical purification techniques can be slow and cumbersome with poor scalability. A new device using laterally-fed membrane chromatography (LFMC) was developed to address these issues. Raja Ghosh from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, spoke to The Column about this new device and its potential applications.

Babies and infants experience rapid growth within a short timeframe and the nutrition that they absorb is therefore of the utmost importance. María Mateos-Vivas from the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition, and Food Science at the University of Salamanca, Spain, has used hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to investigate the role of nucleotides on infant health. She recently spoke to us about this research.

The future of biological and clinical research will depend on technological innovations and cross discipline co-operation as science seeks a deeper understanding of increasingly complex biological systems. The 2016 recipient of the AES Mid-Career Award, Amy Herr, and her team at the University of California Berkeley have explored these areas using a combination of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering with strong foundations in biology, material science, and analytical chemistry to innovate new microfluidic analytical technology. She recently spoke to LCGC about this work.

Ira Lurie describes the role of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) in forensic analysis and why the technique has not become a recognized technique for the analysis of seized drugs.

Water contamination has come to the forefront of global debate as a result of high profile cases such as those in Flint, Michigan, USA or the pollution of the Ganges River in India. Koji Kosaka of the National Institute of Public Health, Japan, has investigated the contamination of the Yodo River Basin in Japan, with the precursors of the carcinogen N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). He recently spoke to LCGC about his use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to uncover the source of contamination and the chemical precursors responsible.

Wine can be a very complex matrix to analyze. LCGC spoke to Alexandre Pons from Seguin-Moreau in Cognac, France, about his work analyzing volatile compounds in wine and why gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS–MS) is his method of choice.

Debby Mangelings, the winner of the 2016 LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography award, is an associate professor in the Department of Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium. Mangelings’s work has focused primarily on chiral separations. Mangelings recently spoke to LCGC about her scientific background, interests, and recent work.

Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate and the changes it is undergoing. Brett Paull and Estrella Sanz Rodriguez from the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS) at the University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, spoke to Kate Mosford of The Column about their work on the analysis of Antarctic ice cores and the important role of capillary ion chromatography (cap-IC) in this area of research.

Milton L. Lee is best known for his achievements in capillary separation techniques (emphasis on column technology and instrumentation), his entrepreneurial activities in scientific instrument companies, and his tenure as a chemistry professor for almost 40 years at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he has held the position of H. Tracy Hall Professor of Chemistry from 1985 to the present. Lee recently spoke to LCGC about his career and work.