The analytical industry in almost all areas of life sciences-whether medicine, drug discovery, basic science among many others, owes a lot to the persistent efforts of analytical chemists in developing new, more sophisticated and more precise techniques and instrumentation for analytical work. With rapid industrialization and the consequent adverse effects of environmental pollution, analytical chemists were at the forefront to find out with a sense of urgency, more accurate and precise ways and means of detecting pollutants.
For instance, a few decades ago, the measurement of compounds in parts per million (ppm) was considered a difficult and amazing task. Today measurement of parts per billion (ppb) and parts per trillion (ppt) is quite common; we even talk about femtomoles for some analysis. Without the development and accessibility of these techniques in our analytical laboratories, we would not have established the effect of harmful compounds at the levels at which they have a biological effect.
The challenge for the modern analytical chemistry has always been described as an effort to look for an increasing number of contaminants or molecules that have effect on life at lower and lower levels.
The other challenge in the area of analytical equipment is to make equipment available as ‘ robust and performance packed workhorses’ but with smaller, compact footprints . The benefits of such hi-performance sophistication available as robust, easy to install, easy to use and maintain solutions has implications of wider and more affordable accessibility. From central core lab situations to distributed bench top convenience, from large metropolises to remote locations, from weeks and months of user hand-holding to a day or two of training! Development of bench-top Auto CD4 and EasyCyte 8HT flow cytometers has not only made large volume assay work more accessible to researchers, it has enabled cell biologists to work more efficiently on the cells. Recent developments have reduced the size of a conventional flow cytometer to a small portable table top instrument.
AA, even today, is perhaps the most prominent and widely used of the family of methods employed for elemental analysis. As the name implies, it uses the absorption of light to measure the concentration of gas-phase atoms. The environmental field is not the only area where AA is commonly used. In clinical analysis, it is used in analyzing metals in biological fluids such as blood and urine. In some pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, trace amounts of a metal catalyst used in the process are sometimes present in the final product. AA is used to determine the amount of catalyst present in that final product. In the manufacturing industry, many raw materials are examined and AA is widely used to check that the major elements are present and that toxic impurities are lower than specified.
Mass Spectrophotometers once huge ‘main-frame like’ instruments occupying entire rooms are today ‘bench top equipment’. The combination of LC-MS and GC-MS was responsible for great improvements in sample analysis. Development of miniaturized computers has helped data analysis and understanding the complex nature of samples like drug compounds, dioxins and other environmental pollutants. Recent advancements in measuring techniques and detection technologies have dramatically improved the sensitivity of modern analytical instrumentation. Trace elements can now be measured at ppt and sub-ppt levels using techniques such as ICP-MS. Low detection levels mean that special care must be taken with the instrumentation, operators, laboratory environment and any sample containers used—all of which can impact experimental results.
This is equally true for ultrapure water used in the analytical process. Due to the dissolution and dilution processes required in sample preparation, high-purity water typically constitutes over 90 per cent of a sample analyzed.Laboratories performing trace analysis must have a reliable source of ultrapure water with consistently low elemental concentrations. This is now possible with Q-POD element units attached with select Millipore water purification systems. New POD-Pak polishers now make ‘ultra ultrapure water’ possible for UPLC applications.
The development of Nanodrop has revolutionized spectroscopy as it reduced the sample requirements to 1.0 µL (microliters). This further reduces the requirements of expensive samples and time taken for the analysis.
Until recently, cells were typically counted manually under a microscope using a hemocytometer. Apart from being a manual and tedious task ,variability in user techniques impacted the accuracy and precision of results. Scepter Cytometers, Life Science industry’s first hand-held, automated cell counter, today represents a breakthrough for life science researchers. This hand-held device provides researchers with a simple and affordable automated option for counting cells and monitoring the health of their cell cultures. Miniaturized Coulter cell counting technology found in much larger instruments is now accessible to researchers as a portable device the size of an automated pipette. The instrument contains sophisticated electronics for cell sensing, signal processing, and data storage. A graphical display reports the cell count and average cell volume in less than 30 seconds of inserting the tip into a cell culture sample. This data is of great help to assess the cell health in a fermentor and also eliminates the requirements of samples in large quantities. The histogram can be used to provide an instant snapshot of the health of the culture.
Developments in Liquid Chromatography (LC) was evolved to reduce the analysis time and maintain good efficiency. Several solutions are currently being developed. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, the chromatographic performance of a conventional LC with selected approaches, namely monolithic supports, high temperature LC (up to 90 °C) and sub-2 µm particles combined with high pressure (up to 1000 bar). Columns packed with sub-2 µm particles under high-pressure conditions (UPLC) were well adapted and this option represents an attractive alternative to conventional LC. Fast-LC approaches demonstrated equivalent performance to conventional LC in terms of trueness, precision, and accuracy profile, with a significant time reduction (up to 8×) according to the selected methodology.
- Subodh V Kulkarni is Senior Manager,Training, Life Science & Vasanthy R is Technical
Specialist, Lab Water Division, Millipore India.