The 2013 LCGC Awards: Part 1

Analytical laboratories are undergoing a fundamental transformation. In the face of increasing sample volumes, growing regulatory requirements, and the rising demand for faster, more precise, and cost-efficient analysis, optimizing laboratory processes is becoming a central focus. Automation technologies offer promising solutions in this regard. Recently, they have evolved from isolated solutions to comprehensive systems that permeate nearly all areas of laboratory practice. This development not only opens up new opportunities in terms of efficiency, data quality, and scalability but also brings technical, organizational, and personnel challenges. To successfully address these, strategic approaches are needed that consider both the technological and human dimensions of the transformation.

LCGC International’s Rising Star of Separation Science Winner for the LC Category, Bram Huygens from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium, recaps the work he presented for his award and his current research focus.

Isavuconazole, an antimycotic agent used to treat fungal infections, can typically be found during dried blood spot sampling. However, there are obstacles that keep it from being an ideal approach for properly determining the drug’s presence.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine’s Children's Nutrition Research Center (Houston, Texas) developed and validated a high-throughput extraction and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) method to separate and quantify 39 spinach flavonoid species in 11.5 min.