Continuing the discussion on the use of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to monitor process and product attributes during the development and implementation of a manufacturing process as in fermentation and recovery in biopharma production.

Three things came together for this blog post: first, late last month, I tweeted the troubling news that the 14-year long polystyrene foam ban in China would be lifted in May of this year, then I read people in China were concerned about the pollution from polystyrene as the ban was lifted, and finally, I received this research study on chicken embryos exposed to hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) which is is a brominated flame retardant (link to Wikipedia page) used in polystyrene foam!

This topic is a new one for this blog, and highlights the use of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to monitor process and product attributes during the development and implementation of a manufacturing process, as in fermentation and recovery in biopharma production.

Did you know that the harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) was introduced in North America as a natural predator of soybean aphids but now has spiraled out of control in many countries including the UK? (Link to Wikipedia.) Not only does this species of ladybirds exhibit swarming behavior and enter homes to winter, but but the ladybirds also release an unpleasant odor and have a tendency to bite humans.

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.

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).

I am really pleased to present an upcoming, complimentary webinar on the use of UHPLC and electrochemical detection as a technique to mimic biological processes in neuroscience and free radical biology research for life science researchers working in the fields of neuroscience, degenerative diseases, and neuro-active therapeutics.

For ordinary grape juice to turn into wine, the sugars in the grape juice interact with yeast to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide, and the grapes (along with the seeds and skins) at this stage of fermentation called grape must. (Of course, it is not so simple otherwise more of us would be attempting to make wine with grapes from the grocery store, and the wine industry would not be a multi-billion dollar industry.)

Many times our experts are asked by chemists and researchers if chromatography vials and closures can be re-used after an appropriate cleaning using laboratory dishwashers intended for the washing of lab glassware. To address this question, which turns out to be really important, two of our experts in the United States and the UK conducted a research study and presented the results in a technical note presented in this blog post.