LCGC Interviews

Rebecca Gowland and her colleagues in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University in the United Kingdom have tested, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides from a sample of permanent and deciduous teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates, and using a minimally destructive acid etching procedure and subsequent nano liquid chromatography– tandem mass spectrometry. She spoke to us about her efforts.

Paul Haddad, of the University of Tasmania, is well known for developing mathematical models to improve fundamental understanding of chromatographic techniques. He recently spoke to us about his research work and career.

A novel chemical fingerprinting method has been developed using multidimensional chromatography and multivariate analysis to investigate potential arson attacks. The Column spoke to Oliver Jones and Jessica Pandohee of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, about their research in this field.

A panel discussion on the latest advances and future developments in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS).

The Column spoke to Noor Abdulhussain from the University of Amsterdam, about her research on 3D-printing in separation science.

Filip Cuyckens from Janssen R&D in Belgium spoke to LCGC Europe about recent innovative approaches he and his team developed to support drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies, and the inventive role that two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) plays in his laboratory to boost sensitivity, solve recovery issues, and increase overall efficiency.

Szabolcs Feketeis currently a scientific collaborator at the University of Geneva. He is actively investigating aspects of retention modeling and fundamental attributes of LC. He is the 2020 winner of the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award which recognizes the achievements and aspirations of a talented young separation scientist who has made strides early in his or her career toward the advancement of chromatographic techniques and applications. He recently spoke to us about his current research work and his career aspirations.

Aogu Furusho from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, spoke to us about his development of a highly selective three-dimensional chiral high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system for the determination of extraterrestrial amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites.

In the second part of this interview on size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) André Striegel discusses the benefits of the technique to analyze nanoparticles and quantum dots, the complementary role of hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC), and the future of SEC in two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) separations.

LCGC Europe interviewed Stefan van Leeuwen from Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), in Wageningen, The Netherlands, on his novel multi-analyte approach to investigate bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), and their analogues using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI-MS/MS).

Carlos Sales and Joaquin Beltrán from The Research Institute for Pesticides and Water at the University Jaume I, in Castellón, Spain, discuss a novel untargeted gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method, incorporating dynamic headspace (DHS) with thermal desorption and a novel deconvolution approach, to classify olive oil.

Heatwaves are significantly affecting the consistency and quality of wine production. The Column spoke to Julia C. Gouot from the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre in Australia about the importance of chromatography to understand the effects of temperature change on grape physiology and composition.

New developments in measurement science are providing chemical information on single cells. Single-cell chemical assays provide unique information on cell heterogeneity and allow detailed studies of the metabolome and proteome for both snapshot and time-resolved studies. Recent papers describe multimodal chemical imaging, single-cell MALDI-MS supervised by immunocytochemical classification, integrating mass spectrometry with microphysiological systems for improved neurochemical studies, high throughput approaches, and others. This interview with Jonathan Sweedler explores the latest developments in mass spectrometry and separations for single cell analysis.

André Striegel spoke to LCGC Europe about innovations in size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) in polymer analysis, including the benefits of hyphenating SEC with on-line multi-angle static light scattering (MALS) and differential refractometry (DRI) detection, the non-trivial nature of a “trivial” solution, the complementary value of “interaction” polymer liquid chromatography (LC) techniques, and the role of quintuple detection in practice.

Ten years since its official definition, foodomics continues to expand the scientific knowledge of food and nutrition while resolving many analytical challenges along the way. LCGC Europe spoke to Alejandro Cifuentes from the Institute of Food Science Research, in Madrid, Spain, about his current foodomics research projects, the overall state of the field, and the future of foodomics.

When analytical chemists apply green chemistry approaches, which seek to minimize negative environmental effects, an important area of focus is reducing the consumption of toxic solvents, such as those used in extraction steps in sample preparation. Developing and testing greener extraction processes for food analysis is a major focus of Elena Ibáñez, a research professor at the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC) in Madrid, Spain.

Analytical chemists are always seeking to make method development more efficient. For nearly two decades, Chris Welch led his teams at the Merck & Co. to constantly drive innovation in this area. Following his recent retirement from the company last year, he and his colleagues wrote a paper about the current state of method development for pharmaceutical research and where it is heading. He recently spoke to us about this topic.

The Column spoke to Núria Fontanals, a senior researcher at the Department of Analytical and Organic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain, about her work investigating the impact of artificial sweeteners as environmental pollutants using hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and the broader role of HILIC in environmental analysis.

The Column spoke to Katherine Curran, a lecturer in Sustainable Heritage at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage in London, UK, about her work classifying museum artefacts using volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis and solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (SPME–GC–MS).

Snezana Agatonovic-Kustrin, a professor in pharmaceutical chemistry at Monash University, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, spoke to The Column about the development of a method to evaluate antidiabetic and antioxidant activity in marine algae using high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)-direct bioautography.

Ron Majors, the 2018 LCGC Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography award winner, is famous throughout the world for his work teaching short courses, presenting at conferences, and his columns in LCGC. Here, Majors discusses the challenges he faced travelling far and wide, some favorite memories of those trips, new found hobbies since his retirement, and advice for the next generation.

Craig Wheelock discusses the obstacles facing chromatographers involved in metabolomics and the benefits of data independent acquisition-mass spectrometry (DIA-MS) in this field.

The Column spoke to Erika Ribechini, Associate Professor of analytical chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry of the University of Pisa, Italy, about her research into cereals in ancient diets and the role of chromatography in establishing their importance.

Zachary S. Breitbach, the 2018 winner of the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography award, received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Subsequently, he worked as a research scientist at UTA while simultaneously aiding in the launch of AZYP Separations and Analytics, a chromatographic materials company. Currently, he is a senior scientist at AbbVie. Breitbach has already made important contributions to both high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). In GC, he played a fundamental role in the development, synthesis, characterization, and utilization of highly thermally stable, high viscosity ionic liquids as new GC stationary phases. Two of the ionic liquids he developed were subsequently commercialized. In HPLC, his work covers enantiomeric separations, hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), ultrafast and high efficiency separations, supercritical and subcritical fluid separations, core–shell bonded phases, and interfacing HPLC to paired io

Ron Majors, the 2018 LCGC Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography award winner, has an outstanding reputation worldwide as a leader, teacher, and chromatography ambassador. Early in his career at Varian, Majors published his pioneering work on the successful packing of microparticulate (5-µm) high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns and studies on the effect of particle size distribution. In fact, he was the first to efficiently pack and commercialize a 5-µm HPLC column. Later, Majors became well known as a columnist for LCGC and through his work teaching short courses worldwide. As a result, Majors is often one of the first names chromatographers come to know during their education, and he is quite famous in the chromatography community. Here, Majors discusses his humble beginnings, career highlights, and more.