If you’re in the dairy or food testing business, you know the threat aflatoxins pose. Aflatoxins are a type of mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus parasiticus, aspergillus flavus , and rarely aspergillus nomius.1 These are likely the most extensively researched group of mycotoxins because of their adverse health effects.2 What’s more, they are widely found in a variety of crops, namely maize, tree nuts, and spices. Believed to be primarily caused by rising temperatures and humidity, these naturally occurring fungi grow on crops in the field, or during storage of feed and raw materials, where they can potentially produce toxins that enter the food chain.
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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.
Celebrating customer experience: Insights from SCIEX leaders
Introduction Customer Experience Day (CX Day) is a special occasion for SCIEX, celebrated every first Tuesday in October. It’s a day dedicated to recognizing the incredible value of our customers and the relentless dedication of our associates who strive to make...
PFAS analysis in food: a robustness study in sensitivity and stability
The combination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) testing, trace-level regulatory requirements and complex MS applications can be intimidating. In a recent webinar, now available on demand, SCIEX PFAS expert Craig Butt demonstrated how the new SCIEX 7500+ system can help make PFAS testing easier.
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...
LC-MS system replacement: Are you ready?
Meeting deadlines in a bioanalysis laboratory can be a big challenge. Older, less sensitive and less reliable LC-MS systems make it even more difficult. Even the disruption caused by the installation and validation can be disconcerting and delay decisions. Does this sound familiar?
Understanding technical debt: the hidden cost of ignoring problems
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, businesses heavily rely on software and IT systems to drive their operations. However, the pursuit of efficiency and speed often leads to the accumulation of what is known as technical debt. Technical debt refers to the implied cost incurred when businesses choose quick but limited solutions over better approaches that may take more time to implement. This blog post will delve into the concept of technical debt, its implications for businesses and how to avoid falling victim to its detrimental effects.
Optimized rolling collision energy curves for IDA and SWATH DIA for peptides
During data dependent acquisition (DDA or IDA) or SWATH acquisition, the collision energy can be automatically adjusted according to the mass/charge and charge of the peptide. This dependency has been well characterized on our QTOF systems. By selecting rolling...
Rescheduling a Schedule I substance, and the Delta-8 controversy
Did you know that in the US, drugs and other chemicals are classified into 5 distinct categories depending on the drug’s acceptable medical use and its potential for abuse or dependency? Drugs federally classified as Schedule I substances by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are considered to have the highest potential for abuse and for creating severe psychological and/or physical dependence. In addition to heroin, LSD and MDMA (ecstasy), cannabis is classified as a Schedule I substance in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, which means it has no approved medical usage.
sMRM Pro Builder template tutorial
The sMRM Pro Builder template is an Excel-based tool that can help you implement large panels of analytes in your lab. The Excel sheet will take your preliminary experimental results and compute retention times, retention time window widths and dwell time weighting to optimize your targeted assay.
Top 4 reasons to try a SCIEX software subscription
Are you avoiding a software upgrade because of the cost? Just subscribe, sit back, and relax. The majority of SCIEX software solutions are now available as subscription products. For a price that is only 40% of the perpetual license fee, you can get access to more...
Improving Patient Care Through Translational Mass Spectrometry
Featuring: Wake Forest® Baptist Health Steven Wong, Ph.D., DABCC (TC), FACB, Past President AACC, Professor of Pathology, serves as Director of the Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology Core Laboratory and is Co-director of the Clinical and Translational Mass Spectrometry...
Why Mass Spectrometry for Your Clinical Lab?
Aaron Hudson, VP/GM, Clinical Diagnostics, SCIEX Aaron Hudson is Vice President and General Manager, Clinical Diagnostics at SCIEX. Aaron has been with SCIEX for over 17 years, beginning as a Sales Representative, and holding various roles including Director Global...
Bad Leftovers: Antibiotic Residues in Food
We know that antibiotics used to treat livestock can end up in the food we eat. Routine food testing labs are essential for detecting compounds, like these, that can be dangerous to our health. Antibiotic residues include both parent molecules and metabolites left...
Canada’s Focus on Cannabis Quality and Safety Intensifies
The Second in a Three-Part Series Welcome to the second in a series of blogs from the cannabis team at SCIEX, designed to bring you up to speed and put you in the lead of the recently legalized cannabis market in Canada. In the first blog, we introduced the Cannabis...
Looking for Ethanol Metabolites and Barbiturates in Urine? Get the Fast and Sensitive ‘Two Bird, One Stone’ Method
Alcohol is legal and widely available, but it is an intoxicating and addictive substance that can have harmful effects on the human mind and body. It reduces inhibitions and distorts judgment and rational decision making, making it the number one cause of criminal...
The Advantages of a Software Maintenance Agreement
You’ve bought your mass spectrometer. You’ve installed all your hardware. You’ve got your operating software set up. You’ve mastered your software workflow modules to optimize quantitative and qualitative data processing. That’s it, right? Even though your system is...
You’ve Edited the Gene. Now What?
Protein-Level Verification Without The Need For Antibodies Using SWATH® Acquisition. Fast, Comprehensive, and Highly Reproducible Although humans have been able to influence the traits of plants and animals for thousands of years through domestication and selective...
Environmental Scientists: Here’s Why You Should Consider Nominal Mass Spectrometry for Your Routine PFAS and Gen-X Testing in Drinking Water
How are you feeling about PFAS regulation right now? If you’re like us, you probably find it hard to pinpoint one specific feeling. But if we took a look at the current state of affairs, we’d all probably agree that it’s a minefield of uncertainty. Under the Safe...
Why Quant?
Every decision you make requires a number As a pharmaceutical scientist, you understand the challenges in getting a new drug through the discovery and development pipeline. As an innovation partner in mass spectrometry, SCIEX works continuously with you, our...
6 Tips to Keep Your Lab’s Software Up and Running
6 Tips to Keep Your Lab’s Software Up and Running Is your lab utilizing SCIEX instrumentation but hesitant about upgrading to the latest software release? Perhaps you are uncertain about key features, error codes, or output. Not to worry, behind every great mass...
A Smart Way to Profit from the Wealth of Biobanks
Microflow LC with SWATH® Acquisition for Digitizing Biobanks What if you could access thousands of high-quality samples for your research? What if these samples were well-annotated biological specimens? And what if they were carefully segmented into just the...
Why Conventional Flow LC-MS/MS Bioanalysis Is out and Microflow Is In
New technologies can transform a laboratory’s throughput and efficiency. At Alturas, if we try out a new technology, we ask: Does it work? Is it convenient? Is it rugged? Are we getting good results? When we look at the convenience, uptime, and overall data that we’re...
Food Testing Labs: What Technology Is Right for You?
Consumer safety is the driving force behind food analysis. From field (or ocean) to fork, there are numerous opportunities for food to become potentially hazardous to human health. As fast as new contaminants enter the food chain, changes in regulation and legislation...
Fueling Up: Eating To Stay Strong When You Have Cancer
This is the third and final post in our series in honor of International Women’s Day and our collaboration with World Cancer Research Fund. To wrap up, Deborah Howland talks about the importance of diet for anyone facing cancer – or trying to prevent it. A specialist...
5 Demands of Forensic Toxicologists and the Ultra-Fast Method That Meets Them
There just isn’t a screening approach available that can give us everything we need when throughput is the priority. Sound familiar? For many toxicology labs, there is a misconception that compromises need to be made when it comes to high throughput drug screening....
Global Trends That Will Affect Neonicotinoid Usage in 2019
Neonicotinoids have become the most widely used class of insecticide in the world, with registration in 120 countries. However, these pesticides have become embroiled in multi-year controversy in Europe and North America due to their risk to beneficial...
A Diagnosis And A “Difficult Waiting Game”
We are thrilled to mark International Women’s Day 2019 by making our fourth annual donation to World Cancer Research Fund, a global not-for-profit organization and leading authority on the links between diet, nutrition, physical activity, and cancer. In fact, our...
Phthalates: The Everywhere Chemical That’s Hard to See, Not Anymore with LC-MS/MS
A few months back, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a technical report on the use of chemicals in food processing and the negative health effects on children. One of the main culprits is phthalates. The 411 of PhthalatesPhthalates are esters of phthalic...
The SCIEX Software Roadmap – The Journey Towards Windows 10 Compatibility is Complete
At SCIEX we are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date tools and technologies to meet the evolving needs of the laboratory. As part of that commitment, we were introducing our software product roadmap towards Windows 10 compatibility back in 2017. Many of...