New Chromatographic Techniques for Pesticides and Antibiotics Analysis

Here is some of the most popular content posted on LCGC International this week.

Food contact materials contain low molecular weight additives and processing aids which can migrate into foods leading to trace levels of contamination. Food safety is ensured through regulations, comprising compositional controls and migration limits, which present a significant analytical challenge to the food industry to ensure compliance and demonstrate due diligence. Of the various analytical approaches, LC-MS/MS has proved to be an essential tool in monitoring migration of target compounds into foods, and more sophisticated approaches such as LC-high resolution MS (Orbitrap) are being increasingly used for untargeted analysis to monitor non-intentionally added substances. This podcast will provide an overview to this area, illustrated with various applications showing current approaches being employed.

In this column, we discuss the label-free and stable isotope labeling proteomics approaches that help in biomarker discovery. We also discuss the different enrichment techniques, such as stable isotope labeling by amino acid in cell culture (SILAC), isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ), and tandem mass tags (TMT, that help in measuring low-abundance protein biomarkers.

LCGC International spoke to Silvia Valverde and Ana María Ares of this group about their research and the resulting article.

Separation scientists frequently encounter critical pairs that are difficult to separate in a complex mixture. To save time and expensive solvents, an effective alternative to conventional screening protocols or mathematical peak width reduction is called iterative curve fitting.

In this installment of "LC Troubleshooting," Dwight Stoll discusses several essential principles related to when and why buffers are important, as well as practical factors, such as commonly used buffering agents, that are recommended for use with different types of detectors.