Volume 3 Issue 2

This edition of Chromatography Today will hopefully give you flavour for the many issues and options associated with method development and give you an insight into the challenges of technology options such as UPLC, LC-MS and GC/MS/MS and the problems associated with complex samples such as proteins, blood, plasma and the difficult task of separating and identifying biomarkers.

In keeping with the Chromatography Today theme the Societies recent spring meeting and AGM was held on 19th-20th May kindly hosted by Merck Sharp and Dohme at Hoddesdon. This one and half day meeting was on “Current Method Development Strategies in Separation Science” details can be found on the Chromatographic Societies Website http://www.chromsoc.com. The society’s previous meeting also had some overlap with the methods theme and the moves to faster separations. In March the Society held a very successful meeting on this topic area at the new and impressive AstraZeneca Conference Centre at Alderley Park. Advances.

What I would say in conclusion, and from my experiences, method development can be considered an “art” which is still very dependent on the chromatographer’s knowledge and understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of modern technology. It is a skill that is not always recognised by managers and which when done well is often taken for granted but if not done effectively can often lead to wasted time, money and credibility.
Returning to mainstream Society business, I mentioned that The Chromatographic Society had launched the “John Dolphin Fellowships” designed to help students attend overseas conferences. I am pleased to announce that we have had an extremely good response, and will be sponsoring a number of UK students at overseas conferences this coming year. Our annual medal awards will see the Society’s Martin Gold Medal presented to Professor Peter Carr at Boston (HPLC 2010) and the Silver Jubilee Medal to Dr Roman Szucs at Riva (The International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography).We are now seeking nominations for next years medals see http://www.chromsoc.com/Awards.aspx