The Evolving Landscape of Chromatography: Trends Shaping 2026 and Beyond

At the outset of the new year, LCGC International engaged with leading experts in the field to identify the major and emerging trends anticipated to shape developments in 2026—particularly those warranting close attention from the scientific community. Perspectives were gathered from:

• Anthony Edge (ChromSoc)
• Dave Bell (ASKkPrime; LCGC International Column Watch editor)
• Brett Paull (University of Tasmania; HyTECH)
• Susanne Boye (Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research Dresden)
• Bingchuan Wei (Genentech)
• Thomas Letzel (AFIN-TS)

These discussions provide insight into the key issues currently occupying expert thinking as we set the stage for the year ahead.

Tony Edge has worked in both manufacturing and industry, having periods of employment at LGC and also AstraZeneca as well as ThermoFisher Scientific, Agilent Technologies, Avantor, and TetraScience. In 2008, he was fortunate enough to be awarded the Desty memorial lecture for his contributions to innovating separation science, and in the same year also won a clinical excellence award from AstraZeneca. He was awarded an honorary fellowship at the University of Liverpool, where he lectured on separation science. He is also the president of The Chromatographic Society in the UK and a permanent member of the scientific committee for the International Symposium on Chromatography.

David S. Bell is lead consultant and owner at ASKkPrime, LLC. He specializes in separation science consultancy, is editor of the “Column Watch” series of articles, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for LCGC International. With over 30 years of experience, he has contributed significantly to chromatography advancements, focusing on stationary phase design, device development, and molecular interaction research. His work spans gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, sample preparation, and pharmaceutical analytical method development. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University, has presented research globally, and has authored more than 95 peer-reviewed and trade magazine articles.

Brett Paull took up his first lectureship at the University of Tasmania from 1995 to 1997, before moving to Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland (1998–2011). In 2011, Paull rejoined the University of Tasmania as a professor of analytical chemistry. From 2014 to 2019, he was director of the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS), and from 2015–2020, the director of the ARC Training Centre for Portable Analytical Separation technologies (ASTech). He is currently director of the ARC Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTECH).

Susanne Boye graduated with a degree in biochemical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (Germany) in 2006. She completed her doctoral thesis on “Modern fractionation techniques for branched polymers” at the Technical University of Dresden and the IPF. Since then, she has been a member of the Polymer Separation Group and established the AF4 technique at the IPF, where she now leads the FFF labs and serves as deputy head of the Department of Advanced Macromolecular Structure Analysis.

Bingchuan Wei is a senior principal scientist from Genentech Inc, a member of Roche Group. He is a scientific leader with nearly 15 years of experience in the analytical and CMC development of different modalities of therapeutics including small molecules, oligonucleotides, peptides, monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and cell therapies. His research focuses on developing and leveraging advanced analytical technologies in drug development, understanding the structural-functional relationship of therapeutics, and fostering entrepreneurial spirit in the biopharmaceutical industry. He holds a Ph.D in analytical chemistry from Purdue University, a master of business administration from The Pennsylvania State University, and a B.S. in chemistry and mathematics from Peking University.

Thomas Letzel is an analytical chemist with more than 20 years of experience in analytical screening using liquid and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. He is a lecturer at TUM and the founder and executive director of AFIN-TS GmbH.

Please stay tuned for the extended videos at a later date.