Best of the Week: Recapping HPLC 2025

This week, LCGC International published a variety of articles on hot topics on the 54^th International Symposium on High-Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques, more commonly known as HPLC 2025, was held in Bruges, Belgium this week. This conference brought together 227 oral presentations (including 5 plenaries and 40 young scientist short orals) given by experts and emerging talents in separation science (1). Here, we summarize workshops that held common topics of discussion.

Below, you’ll find a sampling of some of our most popular content.

Looking for more on HPLC? Explore our Hot Topics in UHPLC companion and the Advances in HPLC supplement, curated by conference organizer Gert Desmet, for in-depth insights and expert perspectives.

HPLC 2025 Day 1: Automating the Analytical Laboratory

Alasdair Matheson

During HPLC 2025, a major theme among the early conference sessions was automation. Following the opening ceremony on Sunday, June 14, 2025, Kerstin Thurow from the University of Rostock, Germany, held her plenary lecture, emphasizing the importance of automation for the global economy. The lecture was titled, “Automating the Analytical Laboratory – Current Developments and Future Directions.” In addition to this lecture, various other talks were held surrounding automation, speakers including Pascal Mieville from EPFL Swiss Cat+, Tomas Leek from AstraZeneca, and more.

HPLC 2025 Day 1: Oligomer Separation Sessions

A closing session on Day 1 of HPLC on Monday, June 15, 2025, ended with a topic that is on everyone’s lips in separation science: oligonucleotide analysis. The session was chaired by two luminaries in this area of research, Davy Guillarme from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Kelly Zhang from Genentech, USA. Speakers included Dwight Stoll (Gustavus Adolphus College), Martin Gilar (Waters Corporation), and Szabolcs Fekete (Waters Corporation).

HPLC Update Day 2: Modern Method Development

During the morning sessions on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Day 2 of HPLC 2025, one of the sessions focused on method development in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Peter Schoenmakers from the University of Amsterdam/Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Netherlands, kicked off the session with a talk entitled: “A New Generation of LC Method Development Tools.” Schoenmakers addressed the complexity of method development in liquid chromatography (LC), identifying it as a significant challenge in separation science. This was followed by a talk from Kevin Schug from the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas, USA, called: “Data Science Tools for Advanced Method Development and Prediction in Analytical Measurements.”

HPLC 2025 Update Day 2: Pharmaceutical Separations Session

Day 2 of HPLC 2025 on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, ended with an illuminating session on pharmaceutical separations chaired by Debby Mangelings and Todd Maloney. Erik Regalado from Merck & Co. started the session with a presentation entitled “Automated Multicolumn Screening Workflow in Ultra-High Pressure HILIC Chromatography for Streamlined Method Development of Polar Analytes.” Regalado discussed advances in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) for analyzing polar compounds, highlighting an automated workflow designed to streamline method development. Other presenters included Filip Cuyckens of Johnson & Johnson, Gwenael Nys of Sanofi, and Gaudry Bruno Troché of the University of Copenhagen.

HPLC 2025 Update: The Rise of GLP-1 Therapeutics

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapeutics are gaining popularity beyond diabetes due to their surprising efficacy in weight management and emerging potential in a broad range of diseases. During HPLC 2025, Martin Vollmer, biopharma program manager at Agilent Technologies, spoke to LCGC International about GLP-1 therapeutics’ evolving importance, as well as the challenges they present to separation scientists.

References

(1) Homepage. HPLC 2025. https://hplc2025-bruges.org/ (accessed 2025-6-20)