2
December 2010 Foreword
Welcome to the twelfth edition of Chromatography Today, with the theme for this edition being electrophoretic separations.
As Dave Perrett comments later in his excellent review article: “electrophoresis remains a very important, if somewhat a neglected, analytical technique”
It is often viewed very much as a secondary technique, as most current separation solutions can be addressed by other liquid chromatographic options. We should however not forget the role it plays in DNA sequencing and in providing a much needed alternative when tackling high molecular weight or difficult separations.
Such separations differ from the conventional chromatographic techniques, in that the support medium for separation is not exclusively a column. The medium can also be used in flat bed or slab form, allowing for multiple samples to be analysed or screened in a single run- making it a truly high throughput technology. This format also facilitates the provision of multi dimensional separations, by just turning the slab through 90 degrees samples can easily be separated by both charge and mass.
Separations in a column first came to the fore in the 80’s and 90’s with the birth of Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) and the pioneering work of Jim Jorgenson, and CE was seen by many pharmaceutical companies to provide a genuine alternative “orthogonal technology” to reverse phase.
CE with its associated benefits of high separation efficiency and short analysis time rapidly established itself and in the modern day environment is now being touted as a “green technology” by offering low mobile phase /electrolyte consumption and low waste generation.
It also spawned a variety of named separation technologies : capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), micro-emulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEECK), capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE), capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF), capillary isotachophoresis (CITP) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC).
New column materials and packings have been developed and detectors - laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and MS designed specifically for its use.
Latterly we have seen a second dawn for “e” separations as nano technology discovered the benefits of electro driven separations in the new drive to miniaturisation and “chip technology”.
As Dave Perrett points out, it has been a long journey for e separations - some 200 years, and yet I feel that this separation technology still has a lot to offer in the future. Let’s not forget, it is still one of the few technologies in the chromatographer’s armoury that can separate both charged and non charged molecules.
As usual the second part of the “Forward” allows me to report on The Chromatographic Society. As a Society we are continually aware
of the need to support our ever diminishing separation science student population.
For those who are unaware, the Society provides a number of bursary options to support student travel, both to UK and International meetings. I am pleased to report that since the launch of the John Dolphin Fellowships late last year, we have seen a very strong take up of the Fellowships. They have provided financial assistance to a number of students, enabling them to attend and present at both the 34th International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography in Riva and the International Symposium on Chirality ISCD-22 in Japan. Applications are now open for 2011
We are also now offering “free membership” of the Society to all students; this will provide all the membership benefit including meetings attendance.
2011 will also see the launch of “The Chromatographic Societies Student Awards”.
“The purpose of the awards is to provide both academic and industrial supervisors a means by which they can recognise and reward undergraduate students that have achieved a high level of understanding and appreciation of chromatography and separation science through independent research”.
The winner of an award will receive a monetary prize and a certificate of recognition.
A number of student awards will be made available each year, Nominations for 2011 are now open. For all information relating to student activities see our website
http://www.chromsoc.com.
The Chromatographic Society has a number of meetings planned for 2011, our flag ship “Spring Meeting” is to be held at Novartis on the 11th-12th May titled “Advances in Separation Science”, we are currently looking for speakers, if you are willing to present contact me (
alan.handley@lgc.co.uk).
Happy separations Alan.
Next Issue February/March - Large Biological Molecules To be included call us on +44(0)1727 855574 or
info@chromatographytoday.com
Alan Handley - President of the Chromatographic Society
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
