Has anyone ever said to you, “There’s nothing wrong with a bit of mold”? No one likes to waste food, and it’s not unusual for people to scrape or pick mold off of foods before eating! Believe it or not, there’s guidance on foods that are (and are not) safe to eat if...
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6 Signs it’s time for a new vendor
A lab’s success depends on many factors from instrument quality to efficient operations, including being partnered with the right vendor. A vendor is more than just a supplier. They should provide you with a high-level quality of support in maximizing the lifespan and performance of your systems, reducing downtime, enhancing ROI and more. How do you know if you’re partnered with the right one? Here are six signs it might be time to find someone new.
Selecting an LC-MS system for quantitation of pharmaceutical drug development
We understand you are busy, needing to prioritize running instruments, reporting results and managing your laboratory to meet deadlines. We created a solution guide to explain how SCIEX systems fit in the drug development pipeline to save you time evaluating options.
Your success and voice go a long way!
At the heart of everything we do is ensuring that your workflows and team are empowered to achieve optimal results with your SCIEX instruments, software, consumables, and services. Every interaction with SCIEX is designed to support your success through the dedication...
Guide decisions during cell line development with more information at the intact level
Monitoring product quality attributes (PQAs) throughout monoclonal antibody (mAb) development is vital to ensuring drug safety and efficacy. By adopting orthogonal analytical techniques and integrating new technologies that have the potential to provide more information, it is possible to improve product quality and manufacturing efficiency and make more informed decisions.
Breaking down the SCIEX Triple Quad™ 7500 LC-MS/MS System – QTRAP® Ready
Sensitivity and robustness carry different meanings in the world of mass spectrometry. Generally, sensitivity refers to an instrument’s ability to achieve lower limits of detection (LOD). Robustness, on the other hand, refers to an instrument’s ability to consistently...
The honey sting
As a consumer it’s hard for me not to feel inundated with claims that our food is “all-natural” or “chemical-free” or that we should buy certain “superfoods” for their health benefits. We read labels and trust that the product we are buying is what we are truly...
Innovation that’s blasting through limitations in explosive detection
Mass spectrometry’s important role in identifying explosives The need for rapid explosive detection is now an unfortunate reality. The remit is multifaceted. The first is for preventative purposes, to protect us from any threat to life. The second is in the...
A new generation of therapeutic modalities
There are over 7,000 genetic diseases that could potentially be cured using gene therapy. Rare metabolic diseases, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease and cancers are some of the top disease classes that can be addressed with gene therapies. With over 1,000...
Enhancing Biologics with CESI-MS Characterization
Comprehensive characterization of a biologic requires analysis at both the intact and digest levels, but these analyses can be complex and cumbersome. For example, with conventional liquid chromatography separations, researchers are often left with limited information...
Full, partial and empty capsid ratios for AAV analysis: What’s the big deal?
For many of you working to develop gene therapy drugs, you know that the time to market the drug is critical. Because gene therapeutics cure diseases by targeting specific genes, it is a constant race to see who develops the drug first. Unlike other classes of drugs where multiple medications can be used to treat a disease, whoever is first to develop a gene therapy drug wins.
What does World Food Day Mean to Food Scientists?
Did you know that the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), celebrates its founding each year on October 16 with World Food Day? You can explore their theme and commitment to ending hunger by 2030 here. As part of their, “Ten Facts You Need to Know about Hunger,” perhaps you may find it interesting that, “The world will need to grow 60 percent more food by 2050 to feed the growing population.”
Transform the Analytical Power of Your SCIEX Mass Spec with SelexION Technology
If you are working with complex assays that demand exceptionally selective quantitative and qualitative performance, sometimes even the most powerful LC-MS/MS technology can’t always cut it alone.
Fipronil Contamination in Eggs Update
Since my last blog, there has been an ongoing investigation into the widespread impact of contaminated egg products. According to The Grocer, 26 more egg foods were pulled from shelves in the fipronil scandal, bringing the total number to 69 products....
5 Ways That SelexION Technology Will Address Your Biggest Analytical Challenges
If you are a scientist working with complex assays, finding a way to significantly improve selectivity of detection could solve some of your biggest analytical headaches. Are we right? If so, then you are in the right place. If you are confronted with assay...
Multi-Laboratory Study Highlights the Quantitative Reproducibility of SWATH Acquisition (Nature Communications Paper)
Reproducibility is one of the key tenets of the scientific method. But in a recent survey published in Nature, more than 70% of researchers were not able to reproduce another scientist’s experiments, and more than half could not reproduce their own experiments1. While the reasons for this are many, at least some of them stem from issues inherent in data collection.
Why is Metabolomics Important and How is it Enabling Precision Medicine?
Why is metabolomics important?
Metabolomics is the large-scale study of metabolites in biofluids, tissue extracts, or organisms. Metabolites are small (<1000 Da), biologically active molecules such as glucose, cholesterol, creatinine, hormones, lipids, and more.
Training Program for Today’s Food and Beverage Testing Lab
Is your lab looking to acquire methods for food testing? What about getting better acquainted on the SCIEX Triple Quad™ or QTRAP® mass spectrometers to learn quantitation better? The following SCIEXUniversity Success Program training courses not only cover food and beverage quantitation but offer application training on topics such as meat speciation testing and pesticide analysis. Especially important considering the latest Fipronil contamination in eggs.I want to sign up for courses >
Phthalates Are Out, Accurate Detection Using LC-MS/MS Technology Is In
Whether you like it or not, the plastics industry is a growing market. According to an Allied Market Research report, it was valued at $15,179 million in 2015 and is projected to reach $18,538 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 2.9% from 2016 to 20221. Additionally, according to the report, in 2015, phthalates type held two-thirds of the global market in 2015. An important statistic since the use of various phthalates is restricted in many countries because of health concerns2.
SCIEX Lands HUPO Science and Technology Award
We are pleased to congratulate its research scientists Stephen Tate and Ron Bonner (retired) for being awarded this year’s Science and Technology award at HUPO 2017 in Dublin Ireland. The Science and Technology Award at HUPO recognizes an individual or team who were key in the commercialization of a technology, product, or procedure that advances proteomics research
Forensics Made Easy
Mass spectrometry techniques are now commonplace for high throughput quantitation and screening, but also for research and discovery for food safety, forensics, environmental testing, and a host of other applications. The demands of these settings are different from traditional research, requiring MS systems which combine robust and reliable operation with straightforward day-to-day processing. The SCIEX X500R QTOF System has been developed specifically to meet these needs and is now helping to streamline the workflow of Zurich’s Institute of Forensic Medicine.
3 Workflows Designed to Accelerate Your Biologics Characterization
Biopharmaceutical development is booming and now an integral part of many pharmaceutical company pipelines. While these emerging biologics present exciting opportunities for the industry, their sophistication is challenging the limits of characterization at all stages of discovery and development.
Making Your Vitamin D Testing Dreams Come True
If you work in clinical diagnostics, you can probably confirm that most clinical laboratories have seen a 5 to 6-fold increase in 25-hydroxyvitamin D testing over the past decade, and volume is growing. Furthermore, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently reported Vitamin D as one of the top five laboratory assays reimbursed by Medicare, accounting for 8.7 million laboratory tests and $337 million in reimbursement dollars.
The Science Behind SelexION Differential Mobility Spectrometry Technology
Scientists and analysts across all fields of testing and research are increasingly challenged by complex samples requiring advanced analytical selectivity. And where LC-MS/MS sensitivity alone is not enough to meet the demands of modern day quantitative performance, Differential Ion Mobility Spectrometry (DMS) has proven to be a valuable addition.
Elimination of Interference using the SelexION Differential Mobility System for the Quantitation of Rituximab in a Dual Surrogate Peptide Approach
The quantitation of proteins using the surrogate peptide approach can complicate nominal mass Triple Quadrupole MRM measurements due to co-extracted interference when using non-selective extraction techniques such as pellet digestion. High resolution coupled with accurate mass filtering can mitigate such interference, as reported previously for the determination of rituximab using the TripleTOF 6600 (Protein Quant Approaches). However, an additional level of selectivity can often be achieved on nominal mass systems using the orthogonal gas-phase separation approach offered by the SelexION+® Differential Mobility System technology (DMS). Interfaced between the sampling orifice and ion source, the DMS separates ions based upon differences in their migration rates under alternating low and high field waveform amplitudes (Figure 1). Ion clustering in low fields and declustering in high fields amplifies the distinction in mobility of an ion, resulting in improved resolution from interfering species of differing molecular cross-section.1-4
Happy Birthday to SWATH Acquisition! 5 Years of Innovation
With its introduction at the HUPO World Congress in 2010 in Sydney Australia by Ruedi Aebersold, SWATH® Acquisition instantly intrigued scientists around the world. Here was a new technique with the potential to revolutionize the way proteomics studies were performed! Based on a data independent acquisition strategy using a SCIEX TripleTOF® 5600 system, SWATH was able to consistently identify and quantify at least as many peptides and proteins as other far more mature proteomics strategies on the market, but with quantitative accuracy and reproducibility rivaling gold standard MRM experiments! This solution was made broadly available to researchers with a full launch of SWATH Acquisition in the Analyst® TF 1.6 Software on the TripleTOF 5600+ System at ASMS 2012 in Vancouver (A Mine of Quantitative Proteomic Information. Prof Dr. Ruedi Aebersold, Head of the Department of Biology, ETH Zurich).
5 Tips for Calibrating a QTOF Mass Spectrometer
Do you have questions about your mass spec? How about a workflow? Our community members are involved in active discussions and receive expert answers from customers like you, SCIEX scientists, and support specialists every week. One recent topic concerned the automatic calibration on TripleTOF® systems as answered by Dr. Christie Hunter whose focus is developing and testing innovative MS workflows for omics research through working collaboratively with the instrument, chemistry, and software research groups.
Enhancing In Vitro ADME Screening
LC-MS technology is helping contract research organization Cyprotex Discovery Ltd. perform bioanalysis of small molecules, peptides, and other pharmaceuticals, enabling quantification to be performed in complex matrices during in vitro ADME studies.
Host Cell Protein Analysis – Mass Spec’s Edge Over ELISA
The number of protein based drugs coming onto the market is at an all-time high, particularly those produced with a host cell system. With host cells come their own proteins. These host cell proteins (HCPs) constitute a major part of process-related impurities and can adversely affect drug safety, so it is critical that they are identified and quantified accurately.
Fipronil Tainted Eggs Detected in Several European Countries
News agencies all over the world are reporting a new food contamination issue regarding eggs which have been found to contain residues of Fipronil. According to Nieuwsuur, a Dutch news, and current affairs program, “The Fipronil scandal is a huge blow to the poultry sector. Millions of eggs are destroyed and 138 companies remain tentatively closed. But supermarkets also face great damage. In recent days all contaminated eggs have been taken out of the shelves.” CBS news has reported that contaminated eggs have been discovered in Belgium and in the Netherlands with other European countries now on alert.
In Search of the Unknown
The production of high-quality drinking water entails rigorous treatment and testing procedures. For water suppliers’ laboratories, such as the Zweckverband Landeswasserversorgung in Germany, one of the major challenges is the identification of trace levels of organic substances, which can be achieved with the help of mass spectrometry.