Our recent issue of the BioPharma enewsletter featured a recently released high-resolution HPLC glycan column (Thermo Scientific GlycanPac AXH-1 column) developed for the separation of charged glycans that coelute from conventional amide HILIC columns. This new column can be used for qualitative, quantitative, and structural characterization of uncharged and charged glycans present in biological molecules, such as proteins, by fluorescence detection (Thermo Scientific Dionex UltiMate FLD-3400RS Rapid Separation Fluorescence Detector) or mass spectrometry (MS) detection (Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Benchtop LC-MS/MS) methods.

Continuing the FAQ questions from the previous post: GC-MS/MS Multi-Residue Pesticides Analysis FAQ (1). (Do visit the post for details on the on-demand webinar and other resources.

As discussed in the ion chromatography technical note featured in this blog post, the monitoring of salinity in water ecosystems, such as estuaries, rivers, deltas, and backwaters is critical not just for human life but also because marine organisms in such environments can succumb to pathogens that are linked to certain salinity levels. (The story on increasing salinity of waters that sparked my interest in researching this issue for a blog post was on the presence of Arabian Sea octopuses in India's state of Kerala's backwaters and scientists concluding that this could be due to increased salinity of the back waters which are much less saline than seawater.)

Last month, we hosted a very popular webinar, titled, Implement High Quality, Routine GC-MS/MS Multi-Residue Pesticides Analysis with ease, (link to on-demand registration page) and the viewers had many questions about the GC-MS/MS solution discussed in the webinar, and why the GC-MS/MS method is one of the fastest growing techniques in routine pesticides testing.

This really fascinating environmental microbiology research study, using one of our latest accelerated solvent extraction systems (Thermo Scientific Dionex ASE 350) for sample preparation of organic matter, is on organohalide-respiring bacteria from the phyllum Chloroflexi and the possibility that they may play a key role in the natural chlorine cycle plus a benefit they could provide to the environment in getting rid of PCBs.

Part 1 of this blog post, LC-MS Hormones Detection Application Kit as per EPA Method 539 (1), presented two tools (kit and webinar) to address the challenges of detecting hormones in drinking water.

Did you know that low doses of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones among others have been found increasingly in environmental and drinking waters? As per the Utah State University site, pharmaceuticals have been found in at least 41 million of America's drinking water supplies. Last year, due to increasing concerns over the long-term health impacts to humans and aquatic species, the World Health Organization published a 52-page report titled, Pharmaceuticals in drinking water (downloadable PDF).

Natural gas is booming in the United States and despite several issues around the drilling of shale for the extraction of natural gas, the U.S. is continuing to press forward on the extraction of cheap natural gas due to the improvements in drilling techniques (link to story on CNBC). Another recent piece of news was that the U.S. is planning to export natural gas to the UK within five years!

I don't know about you but studies such as the one blogged here fascinate me and draw me into the extent that here I am blogging this particular one on using our accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) technique in diagnosing starvation in domestic animals. This is done by studying the bone marrow fat in the femur or other long bone of the animal postmortem since this fat is the last to deplete in situations of starvation. By the way, it turns out, as mentioned in the study discussed here, bone marrow from the femur of the leg has been used in diagnosing starvation in wild ruminants, snowshoe hares, and deer.

Imagine what you could do if you reduced the amount of time your staff spend manually collating reports, preparing samples, performing calculations, etc. There are significant savings to be found by reducing the time spent on these manual tasks and your scientists and lab personnel will be able to spend more time on value-added activities that generate revenue. Integrating the lab’s workflow and instrumentation within a laboratory information management system (LIMS) gives your lab personnel the freedom to focus on the science of the lab, while knowing that the data and documentation necessary for reporting and compliance is available for access within the LIMS when it is needed.