Best of the Week: Tips for Your First Talk, Determining Plasticizer Residues, GC and Cacao Beans

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!

The LCGC Blog: So, You’re Giving Your First Talk

André M. Striegel

In André Striegel’s previous LCGC Blog, he discussed common rumors about what and what not to do at academic conferences to educate first-time attendees on what to expect. In this blog, he mentioned that “there is nothing inferior about presenting a poster as compared to giving a talk, and that there are even some benefits to the former as compared to the latter.” In this edition of The LCGC Blog, Striegel returns to this topic, providing advice on how to prepare for your first talk or presentation at a scientific conference.

A Green Analytical Method for Simultaneously Determining Plasticizers Residues in Honeys from Different Botanical Origins: An Interview with Silvia Valverde and Ana María Ares

John Chasse

Recent research by the Analytical Chemistry Group of the University of Valladolid (Spain) has focused on determining nine plasticizers in honey samples by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). While the team points out that there have been studies conducted previously focusing on the assessment of other contaminants in honey (such as metals, pesticides, antibiotics and veterinary drugs), there are comparatively few that have been done regarding plastics specifically. Recently, LCGC International spoke to Silvia Valverde and Ana María Ares of this group about their research and the resulting article.

2D Gas Chromatography and TOFMS to Study Moisture-Damaged Cacao Beans

Aaron Acevedo

Comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) gas chromatography (GC×GC) paired with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) is becoming widely used in various application areas, including the analysis of food, fuel, and monitoring health. With the growing use of GC×GC-TOFMS, there is also a growing need for developing chemometric techniques, both targeted and nontargeted, to analyze these large and complex datasets.

Studying Serum of Protein Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer Detection Using LC-MS/MS

John Chasse

Comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) gas chromatography (GC×GC) paired with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) is becoming widely used in various application areas, including the analysis of food, fuel, and monitoring health. With the growing use of GC×GC-TOFMS, there is also a growing need for developing chemometric techniques, both targeted and nontargeted, to analyze these large and complex datasets. For this study, two “orthogonal” characteristics of moisture damaged cacao beans (temporally dependent molding kinetics versus the time-independent geographical region of origin) are simultaneously analyzed in a comprehensive GC×GC-TOFMS dataset using tile-based Fisher ratio (F-ratio) analysis. As part of this experiment, cacao beans from six geographical regions were analyzed once a day for six days following the initiation of moisture damage to trigger the molding process.

Using UHPLC-MS/MS to Test for Pesticides

Aaron Acevedo

Pesticides are ubiquitous pollutants of anthropogenic origin that are used in various activities, such as agriculture and gardening, as well as to kill and repel insects in the form of creams and lotions. While these substances can be useful, pesticides can pose risks to human health. Depending on the type of pesticide, some can affect the nervous system, some may irritate the skin or eyes, and some pesticides can even be carcinogens. Once humans are exposed, these substances are typically absorbed, usually metabolized by the liver and then excreted via urine, either in their original form or after being metabolized by conjugation enzymes into specific/non-specific metabolites. In a recent study from scientists at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research in Barcelona, Spain, scientists developed and optimized a method for determining various pesticides in human urine.