Author: Francois

1,4-Dioxane in Consumer Products

1,4-Dioxane is an industrial chemical contaminant that is of concern even at trace levels in consumer products. Government jurisdictions are beginning to regulate the amount of 1,4-dioxane allowed in consumer products globally. It has already been banned and deemed unsafe in cosmetics in Canada, and it is a regulated substance in Europe. The allowable concentrations in the United States are expected to vary from state to state, typically at part per billion to low part per million levels. There have been several methods developed to test for 1,4-dioxane, but none of these methods are adequate to detect 1,4-dioxane in consumer products with complex mixtures and solutions.  A method for the high-sensitivity detection of 1-4-Dioxane was developed on the Agilent 8890B/7000 GC/QQQ triple quadrupole in Electron Ionization (EI) mode.  The extraction was performed using an Agilent PAL3 autosampler with solid phase microextraction (SPME) tool. The GC was configured with a 30 m DB-8270D column and a 1 m deactivated fused silica column using a purged ultimate union. The advantage of using a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer is that a selective precursor to product ion transition is generated, minimizing interferences. Analysis time was less than 15 minutes. Calibration curves using 9 levels from 0.1 ng/g (ppb) to 400.0 ng/g (ppb) in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) Electron Ionization with an R2 value of 0.999.  Low detection limits, necessary for these pernicious compounds, were also achieved.

 

 What you will learn

•    The application of the Evosep One chromatography system to high-throughput analysis of large cohorts.
•    How there is a growing demand for high throughput and standardized workflows to allow  the  analysis of increasingly large cohorts of samples for proteomic research
•    How high sensitivity is achieved for the accurate measurement of low abundant biomarkers
•    How the Evotip was designed to improve efficiency and recovery associated with sample purification and loading ahead of MS analysis.

 

Speaker

Ron Honnold
Application Scientist
Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Ron Honnold, Ph.D. is an Applications Scientist in the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG) at Agilent Technologies; Santa Clara, CA. Ron is an experienced analytical chemist and mass spectrometrist with more than 30 years of experience using state-of-the-art analytical systems. Currently he is responsible for applications and methods development related to GC-MS products, particularly for single quadrupole (GC/MS), triple quadrupole (GC-MS/MS), and quadrupole time of flight (GC-QTOF). Ron is also a member of the Agilent Cannabis Task Group focusing on pesticides, terpenes, and residual solvents.

 

Simon Jones
GC Applications Engineer/Scientist
Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Simon Jones has over 23 years of GC experience. For the last 15 years, he has been with Agilent as a GC applications engineer/scientist based out of the GC column manufacturing facility in Folsom California. In his roles he has assisted with application development, troubleshooting chromatographic issues, and assisting with instrument configurations. Prior to joining Agilent in 2005, he worked in an analytical lab for the power industry, developing and optimizing testing methodologies for insulating fluids and materials in transformers.

 

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InfinityLab OnLine HPLC Solution

In modern production of small molecule pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, and, in fact, ALL production batches, the reaction has to be closely monitored and potentially even controlled by, for instance, online reaction monitoring analytics. Therefore, connecting a UHPLC instrument by a sampling device to the reaction vessel can be helpful. The 1260 Infinity II Prime Online LC offers a combined UHPLC and integrated reactor sampling interface for automated reaction sample analysis with the Agilent 1260 Infinity II Online Sample Manager. This device enables the drawing of samples from a reactor and dilution/quenching prior to an injection.

This presentation will include a look at the hardware and software used for the Agilent OnLine LC system.  We will log into a live system to view the setup possibilities and review data acquired on the system.

 

Speaker

Bob Giuffre
Application Engineer
Agilent Technologies, Inc.

 

Bob Giuffre has been working with HP/Agilent for almost thirty years as an Application Scientist for the HPLC product line. During that time Bob has worked on applications ranging from small molecule pharmaceutics to large molecule polymers, to monoclonal antibodies. Currently, Bob is working in the area of ultra-high pressure two-dimensional liquid chromatography as a means to increase peak capacity for complex formulations. Bob has authored a chapter on the use of Diode-Array Detection in Pharmaceuticals. He is currently writing a chapter on Troubleshooting Peptide and Proteins Analysis using LC-MS.

 

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Customer Stories | Raymond Hartley

Why do laboratories across South Africa choose Chemetrix and what do we bring to the table that builds longstanding relationships?

In this episode, meet Raymond Hartley, founder and Managing Director of Microchem, as he shares his business’ journey with Chemetrix and how we’ve supported Microchem’s incredible growth.

Microchem specialises in nutritional analysis, micro biological analysis, freeborn pathogens, elemental analysis, hygiene inspections, pharmaceutical testing, and pesticide analysis.

Chemetrix provides both for Microchem, the first laboratory in Africa to acquire an Agilent Ultivo triple quadrupole LC/MS instrument.

Hear the story straight from Raymond and discover Microchem’s vision for the future and how Chemetrix supports this growth.

We are now ISO 9001 certified

Chemetrix is very proud to announce that we are now ISO 9001 certified, the ultimate global benchmark for quality management.

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 sets out the steps necessary to adopt a quality management system. It is designed to help organisations ensure they meet the needs and expectations of both customers and other interested parties, based on internationally recognised quality management principles set out by the International Standards Organisation (ISO).

At the heart of the standard is a quality policy and set of systems and principles that tie together business objectives, customer needs and your marketing plan. When this approach to quality is embedded across the business every employee understands how their actions create a better customer experience and processes are put in place to continually review and improve that customer experience.

How will it impact our business?

By focusing on customer experience, ISO 9001 will better equip our business to meet our customer’s needs, improving the customer focus throughout the business. We aim to have a lasting impact in the following ways:

  • Streamlined internal processes, improved efficiency, cost containment and savings, whilst improving accountability and traceability
  • A recognised mark of quality opens us up for new business, both at home and abroad
  • Improved staff motivation through greater clarity and focus on business objectives, including time and resources spent
  • Improved customer service and referrals through customer focus

Perhaps the most important element of the standard however, is that it is not a one-off exercise. Through regular reviews we will keep quality at the forefront of our business, with continuous improvement processes driving the way we develop to better meet our customer’s needs.

You can view our certification by clicking the below link.

View our certificate

We look forward to working with you on this journey to provide continuous improvement in quality management and the services we offer you, our loyal customers.

Novel Front-end Strategies to Increase Sample Throughput in LC/MS

Imagine if you could perform ‘LC/MS’ analysis in a comparable time to Usain Bolt’s 100-metre world record!  Over the last 15 years through iterative technological product enhancements and by the replacement of a traditional UHPLC with a simple sample cleanup step, the RapidFire system has accelerated MS analyses in many fields ranging from HTS, ADME, biopharma, synthetic biology, food, and the life sciences.

However, sometimes when there is an unavoidable requirement for good chromatographic separation, then an alternative, low-cost strategy exploiting Ultra-Fast LC can be adopted to reduce analysis times from minutes to seconds. This webinar presents the new RapidFire400 system for HTS and will contrast its analytical merits to the complimentary Ultra-Fast LC approach.

 

What you will learn

•    How the RapidFire400 meets the needs of  today’s high throughput requirements
•    Learn how a standard Agilent LC can be configured to the Ultra-Fast LC mode
•    Understand the advantages and limitations of both high sample throughput strategies

 

Speaker

Andreas Mielcarek
Pre-Sales Applications Scientist
Agilent

 

Andreas Mielcarek is a pre-sales Applications Scientist with Agilent Technologies. He has been with Agilent for 5 years developing LC, RapidFire, and mass spec methods on a wide range of molecules. Prior to joining Agilent, he worked as a LC-MS Core-facility scientist at the University Marburg, were he obtained his PhD in bioanalytical chemistry.

 

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Ultra-High Sensitivity for Targeted Mass Spectrometry Applications

The Evosep One is a powerful and standardized platform for LCMS workflows that require a sensitivity boost achieved at low flow rates between 100nl/min to 4ul/min. The robustness and throughput of the standardized methods on the Evosep One combined with the sensitivity of the Agilent 6495C triple quadrupole support targeted analysis of proteomes with ultra-high sensitivity down to the single cell level.

We demonstrated this by targeting selected peptides in a complex background of sub-nanogram material and generated dilution curves spanning several orders of magnitude. To ensure seamless integration of the Evosep One with the Agilent 6495C triple quadrupole, we have developed a native driver for MassHunter and a robust solution for the Agilent nanoflow ion source.

 

 What you will learn

•    The application of the Evosep One chromatography system to high-throughput analysis of large cohorts.
•    How there is a growing demand for high throughput and standardized workflows to allow  the  analysis of increasingly large cohorts of samples for proteomic research
•    How high sensitivity is achieved for the accurate measurement of low abundant biomarkers
•    How the Evotip was designed to improve efficiency and recovery associated with sample purification and loading ahead of MS analysis.

 

Speaker

Angela McArdle
Evosep Senior Scientist
Evosep Biosystems

 

Angie is a proteomics scientist on the application team at Evosep BioSciences. Her work focuses on bringing standardization, throughput, and depth into translation proteomic research studies. During her PhD at University College Dublin studying proteomics in inflammatory arthritis and postdoc at Cedars Sinai, Los Angeles, Angie conducted large scale biomarker studies, where she gained considerable experience with the Evosep One and the Agilent triple quadrupole mass spectrometers.

 

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Adding an Extra Dimension of Separation

With the increasing demand for high throughput LC/MS analyses, there is a temptation to reduce chromatographic run times, but in some instances, this can give rise to significant interferences, thus compromising the result. Or perhaps, despite improvements in column resolution you still observe a reduction in sensitivity and selectivity due to ion suppression or elevated background noise caused by matrix effects? Could it be that you need to carry out discovery work and need to confidently identify ‘unknown’ compounds using a high-resolution MS strategy?

Maybe all your analyses could benefit from further separation of sample components?

We will discuss the 6560C Ion Mobility LC/Q-TOF system and explain how it exploits ion mobility as an extra dimension of separation to increase feature coverage whilst reducing background noise to avoid losses in sensitivity. An exemplary workflow detailing a bona fide 4-dimensional LC/MS method to characterize compounds including proteins without increasing analytical run times will be described.

 

 What you will learn

•    The principles and benefits of ion mobility (IM) and how it can help multiple applications
•    How adding an orthogonal gas phase separation (IM) allows faster chromatography to be used to separate isobars and matrix components
•    How accurate Collisional Cross Sections (CCS) values from drift time measurements delivers higher confidence for untargeted workflows
•    How to separate and characterize different protein conformers present in a single solution

 

Speaker

Hannah Florance
Application Scientist
Agilent

 

In 2006, Hannah gained her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in non-covalent protein interactions in solution and the gas phase under the tutelage of Prof. Perdita Barran.

Hannah is currently an LC/MS applications specialist for Agilent, based in Cheadle, UK and has had multiple roles in the life sciences research, starting as a protein chemist, before moving into the proteomics and metabolomics fields.

 

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AFSW2022: The Food Safety Event of the Year!

Africa Food Safety Workshop 2022 is happening at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg from 27 June until 1 July. The event brings together food safety stakeholders from across the continent to enhance networking and to facilitate the sharing of analytical knowledge and transfer of developed technologies that pertain to all areas of food safety control systems. 

 

The programme

The AFSW2022 programme boasts diverse discussion panels along with influential scientists and key role players delivering presentations that aim to boost systems and enhance trade across the sector. Q&A sessions give attendees the opportunity to engage with the speakers and get additional insights on the exciting range of topics. The event will also have a dedicated exhibition for various Food Safety instrumentation and equipment suppliers, like Chemetrix. 

You can view the full programme here

 

Why should you attend?

With the globalisation of the food chain, there is a greater demand for consistent quality, uncompromising safety and a commitment to protecting consumers while also adopting sustainable solutions. Chemetrix leads the industry with products and services to help you deliver what your customers demand. Our instruments, systems, and supplies are used throughout the food production chain, including incoming inspection, new product development, quality control and assurance, and packaging. We are excited to showcase our products at AFSW2022 along with our expertise, and we look forward to networking with the industry professionals in attendance. 

This event is important to members of various communities connected to food safety, including: 

  • Food testing laboratories (analysts and managers)
  • Quality infrastructure institutions including Accreditation, Standards, Scientific and Legal Metrology institutes
  • Regulators
  • Research/academia
  • Industry (food manufacturers/distributors)
  • International and non-governmental organizations
  • Professional associations

 

The event will be led by Keynote Speaker Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa (African Union Commission – Director of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE), AU, Ethiopia).

 

For more event information, visit afsw2022.co.za to purchase your tickets and you can see the discussion and speaker programme here. 

 

CE/MS: From Small Ions to Biomolecules – Think CE!

Capillary Electrophoresis is extremely well suited to the separation of charged molecules whether they are small pesticide metabolites (<110 Da)  or large biomolecules such as whole proteins and antibody-based drugs (>150KDa). The technique is characterized by high-efficiency separations, allowing high peak capacity, and speed, only requiring very small sample volumes (ca. 10ul).

When coupled with Mass Spectrometry, CE/MS provides maximum separation power and sensitivity for compound identification, particularly when coupled to High-Resolution QTOF MS instrumentation. This webinar will provide a direct comparison of CE with LC separations and will highlight areas of complementarity and orthogonality. With examples of analyses ranging from small pesticide metabolites to antibody-drug investigations and specialized isoelectric focusing applications (cIEF), this webinar will demonstrate the true power of CE/MS in a modern laboratory.

 

 What you will learn

•    When to use CE separations over UHPLC
•    How to couple CE to MS
•    Why CEMS is Complementary to LCMS.
•    How cIEF can be used with mass spectrometry

 

Speaker

Gordon Ross
Application Scientist
Agilent

 

Gordon has worked in the field of separation sciences using CE and LC since the 1980’s and with mass spectrometry for 25 years. He has been with Agilent for 28 years and is currently a Senior Applications Scientist. He has worked in many analytical areas from metabolomics to environmental analysis and has interests in Target, Suspect and Non-Target Screening using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

 

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Improved Metabolomics Analysis Using an Iron-Free Flow Path

Metabolomics is a tool to decipher and understand the physiological state of a cell or organism. In recent times, LC/MS emerged as the prevalent analytical technique of choice, still with significant potential for improved robustness and ease of use.

In this webinar, we will demonstrate the advantages gained by using a biocompatible flow path over stainless steel by direct comparison of the Agilent 1290 Infinity II Bio LC and Agilent 1290 Infinity II LC. The 1290 Bio LC showed improved peak shape and resolution for phosphorylated compounds like nucleotides and sugar phosphates without apparent adsorption effects, compared to the Agilent 1290 Infinity II LC. Analyzing intracellular metabolite extracts derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, excellent retention time RSD values of 0.1% were generated, and essential metabolites for physiological parameters like the adenylate energy charge could be analyzed consistently. These results show that the 1290 Bio LC is the ideal choice for the seamless and robust analysis in metabolomics.

 

 What you will learn

•    How HILIC/MS separation is used for the detection of metabolites.
•    How an iron-free flow path delivers superior performance for phosphorylated metabolites.
•    Improved tailing factors of nucleotides
•    Robust performance in analyzing metabolites in a complex yeast extract

 

Speaker

Andre Feith
Application Scientist
Agilent Technologies

 

André Feith is an HPLC application scientist at Agilent Technologies, focusing on biopharma and biotechnological topics. He was involved in testing and validation of the Agilent 1290 Infinity II Bio LC regarding bio-specific applications and more recently he has focused on analyzing new modalities like oligonucleotides and online analysis of critical quality attributes with process analytical technology (PAT). During his Ph.D., he researched at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, in the field of Bioanalysis, Metabolomics, and Metabolic Engineering.

 

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