Best of the Week: Antisense Oligonucleotide Analysis, ACS’s 2025 Strategic Plan, and More

This week, LCGC International published a variety of articles on trending topics in separation science. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most popular articles that were published this week in no particular order.

We’d love to hear from you! Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in LCGC? Share your ideas with us—we value your feedback and are committed to exploring the subjects that matter most to our readers. Email chroncich@mjhlifesciences.com with your thoughts. Happy reading!

Studying Antisense Oligonucleotides Using HILIC

Aaron Acevedo

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), a variation of reversed-phase chromatography, allows for strong retention of polar, hydrophilic compounds that are unrelated under conventional reversed-phase conditions, without requiring an ion-pair additive in the mobile phase. In this study, the team, which includes Dwight Stoll, the "LC Troubleshooting" columnist for LCGC International, worked to determine the quality antisense ONs (ASOs) attributes, such as purity, potency, and sequence for ONs, which can be challenging. This is due to the relatively large size of oligonucleotides, in addition to their polyanionic nature and large numbers of synthetic modifications. Chromatography technologies are quickly evolving to meet these challenges, the authors wrote, with one notable area of advancement being the use of HILIC for ON separations.

ACS Outlines Four Goals in its New Strategic Plan

Will Wetzel

On January 1^st, 2025, from their headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Chemical Society (ACS) released their strategic plan for 2025–2029. The ACS Strategic Plan 2025–2029 outlines several main goals that society plans of pursuing over the remainder of the 2020s to grow and strengthen their organization and the scientific community. The plan was approved by the ACS Board of Directors in December. Their goals include elevating science’s reputation and boosting community engagement, hoping to communicate that chemistry has a positive effect on society and solidify public trust in science.

Investigating DDT Deposits on the Ocean Floor

Will Wetzel

A recently released documentary, “Out of Plain Sight,” explores how Marine Science Institute scientist David Valentine, in collaboration with Christopher Reddy and his team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, discovered dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) deposits on the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Los Angeles. Recently, we sat down with Christopher “Chris” Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, whose research was the basis for a recently released documentary.

Exploring the Environmental Footprint of MS/MS Techniques to Determine Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals

John Chasse

In a joint study between the University of Duisburg-Essen (Essen, Germany), the Institute for Environment and Energy, Technology and Analytics (IUTA e. V., Duisburg, Germany) and the cooperation laboratory (KL) of Ruhrverband and Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband (EGLV) (Essen, Germany), the green analytical chemistry tool Analytical GREEnness (AGREE) and the white analytical chemistry (WAC) framework were used to conduct a comparative analysis of gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), and the yeast-cell-based reporter gene assay (A-YES). Their assessment critically evaluated each method's environmental impact, efficiency and practicality. An overview of potential improvements inspired by their work offers a path to the further enhancement of not only the greenness of the methods, but also their feasibility. LCGC International spoke to Michelle Klein from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Duisburg-Essen (Essen, Germany) about this analysis, and the recent paper that resulted from the work.

Liquid Chromatography to Analyze Vitamin D Proteins in Psoriasis Patients

John Chasse

High density lipoproteins (HDLs) interact with a heterogeneous set of proteins that have been proposed to exert numerous antiatherogenic properties, including the passage of cholesterol from the arterial wall to the liver for excretion, termed reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). A recent study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland) and the University of Kentucky sought to compare whether HDL-associated Vitamin D binding protein (DBP) or total serum DBP (S-DBP) could serve as useful biomarkers for assessing disease severity in psoriasis (PSO) and cardiovascular disease. PSO patients and non-PSO control subjects underwent blood collection for HDL purification by liquid chromatography (LC) and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) scans to assess coronary plaque burden.