Best of the Week: HTC-18 Workshops, ASMS Preview, Investigating Chocolate

This week, LCGC International published a variety of articles on the hottest topics in chromatography and beyond. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most popular articles, according to our readers. Happy reading!

ASMS 2024: An Interview with Elizabeth Neumann of the University of California, Davis

Aaron Acevedo

Elizabeth Neumann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis. She has been a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University, a NSF Doctoral Fellow at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she has earned a BS in Chemistry from Baylor University. Recently, LCGC International sat down with Neumann to discuss her presentation, "Multi-Site Reproducibility Trial of MALDI-IHC Multiplexed Targeted Protein Imaging using a 33-Organ Tissue Microarray."

Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography Covered at HTC 2024

Aaron Acevedo

During the 18th International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography and Separation Technology, held May 28–31, 2024 in Leuven, Belgium, a workshop session titled “Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography” was held on May 30. Led by Session Chair Oliver J. Schmitz of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany, this session focused on the various ways multidimensional liquid chromatography (LC) can be used in different applications. Topics ranged from cannabis analysis to cholesterol biosynthesis, with speakers including André de Villiers of Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Pia Wittenhofer of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Investigating Glyoxal and Methylglyoxal Formation and Bioaccessibility in Chocolate with HPLC

John Chasse

α-dicarbonyl compounds (α-DCs) are formed from carbohydrates via the heating and storage process, mainly through the Maillard reaction (MR; the nonenzymic browning reaction of reducing sugars with amines and typically involves amino acids, proteins, and peptides), caramelization, lipid-peroxidation, and enzymatic reaction. Recently, a new study focused on evaluating the formation of α-DCs in chocolates under replicated digestive system conditions. The concentrations of glyoxal and methylglyoxal in chocolates before and after the process were concluded using through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.

Emerging Industrial Applications in MS Covered at HTC 2024

Aaron Acevedo

On May 28, experts presented on emerging industrial applications during the International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography and Separation Technology, in Leuven, Belgium. Led by Session Chair Peter Van Broeck of Johnson & Johnson in Belgium, this session was dedicated to sharing what mass spectrometry (MS) and other analytical chemistry techniques can do on a practical level in various fields. Topics range from the advancements made in mass spectrometry (MS)-based structure identification to using selected-ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) to monitor industrially relevant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air. Speakers include Filip Cuyckens of Johnson & Johnson in Belgium and Hannes Lüdtke of the German Aerospace Center.

Analyzing Total Phenolic Content in Vegetable Oils Using a Smartphone

John Chasse

Traditional methods of analyzing total phenolic content (TPC) include ultraviolet/visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas chromatography (GC). These approaches require sophisticated equipment as well as a stable laboratory environment, and, while they are effective, there are cost restraints, specialized knowledge is needed to use them, and their stationary nature makes them less ideal for measurements onsite or in the field. In a recent study published in the journal Foods, Sanita Vucane and her colleagues at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (Jelgava, Latvia) created a new technique for discovering the total phenolic content (TPC) in vegetable oils through analysis of images captured by a cellphone.