November 5th 2024
Spectroscopy sat down with Landulfo Silveira Jr. of Universidade Anhembi Morumbi-UAM and Center for Innovation, Technology and Education-CITÉ (São Paulo, Brazil) to talk about his team’s latest research using Raman spectroscopy to detect biomarkers of cancer in canine sera.
Using SERS to Study How Cells Respond to Pharmaceuticals
February 5th 2016Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has made significant progress in recent years (1), and its application to biomedical studies is of particular interest. Colin Campbell of the University of Edinburgh is taking the biomedical application of SERS to a new level by using the technique to make spatially resolved measurements in live three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures to determine the response to drugs during drug discovery operations. For this work, Campbell received a FACSS Innovation Award at the SciX 2015 conference last October. This interview is part of the Spectroscopy¬–SciX interview series.
From Pharmaceutical to Agricultural Applications: What’s New in NIR?
December 7th 2015Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy offers quick analysis with no sample preparation for many fields, but it is particularly popular for process monitoring, materials science, and medical uses. NIR has also seen applications in agriculture from the very start of the technique, but new instrument capabilities are poised to offer even more to that field. Benoît Igne, a principal scientist at GlaxoSmithKline in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, recently spoke to us about his work using NIR and areas where he thinks the technique has growth potential, specifically process analytical technology and agriculture.
Detecting Adulterated Meat with LIBS
December 2nd 2015Economically motivated food adulteration is a problem around the world. The 2013 horsemeat scandal in Europe, in which horsemeat was substituted for beef and pork, did not cause serious health problems, but certainly upset many consumers and led to a desire for increased quality control over meat products. İsmail Hakkı Boyaci of the Food Research Center at Hacettepe University, in Ankara, Turkey, has developed a method using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to detect meat adulteration. He recently spoke to us about this work.
Diagnosing Disease with Raman Spectroscopy
November 12th 2015Vibrational spectroscopic techniques such as Raman spectroscopy have taken on increasingly important roles in point-of-care testing, spectral histopathology, and rapid in vivo diagnostics. Nick Stone is a Professor of Biomedical Imaging and Biosensing at the University of Exeter, and he and his group use Raman spectroscopy for measuring changes in the molecular constituents of cells and tissues as disease develops. He recently spoke to us about this work.
Miniaturized Quantum Cascade Lasers Enable Fast Mid-IR Spectroscopy
November 5th 2015Quantum cascade lasers have been gaining increasing attention as their capabilities are being demonstrated in a range of applications. One recent advance is the development of a miniaturized QCL, which when used as a light source, enables mid-infrared (mid-IR) scanning speeds much faster than those of conventional Fourier-transform IR (FT-IR). Ralf Ostendorf of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) in Freiburg, Germany, recently spoke to Spectroscopy about this work.
Using X-ray Techniques to Monitor Air Pollution
October 8th 2015Air quality is a global concern, but even more so for urban areas and poor countries. The pollution in the air goes directly into our lungs, which makes monitoring the particulates and various levels of pollution a major concern. Johan Boman of the Department of Chemistry & Molecular Biology at University of Gothenburg has been studying the air quality in several different regions using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). Here, he discusses the challenges faced in this research and plans for future studies.
ICP-MS for Environmental and Bioimaging Research
August 28th 2015Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has become a successful approach for fast, multielemental analysis, and analysts are applying it to a wide range of analyses, including geochemical, environmental, forensic, and medical studies. Uwe Karst is a Professor and Chair of the Analytical Chemistry Department at the University of Münster in Germany, and he and his group use ICP-MS for applications such as analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents in river water, speciation analysis in a study of a disease related to renal failure, and examining the distribution of a labeling compound in mouse tumor cells and macrophages. He recently spoke to us about this work.
The Rise of an Alternative Ion Source
August 26th 2015Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources have been around for so long that most scientists don’t even question their capability to get the job done. However, an ion source for elemental mass spectrometry (MS) has been developed that offers different benefits compared to ICP sources: the liquid sampling-atmospheric pressure glow discharge (LS-APGD) ionization source, which features small sample volumes, low uptake rates and waste, and low operating power.
Combining Raman Imaging, Mass Spectrometry Imaging, and AFM
August 14th 2015Imaging techniques using vibrational spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), and atomic force microscopy have all been advancing and gaining momentum in recent years. There is great potential power in these imaging techniques, particularly in the biomedical field. Thomas Bocklitz of at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena is working to better harness the power of these techniques by combining them.
Revealing the Mechanisms of Diffuse Reflectance IR
June 11th 2015Diffuse reflectance is a well-known sampling technique in mid-infrared (mid-IR) and near-IR spectroscopy. Despite its significance, however, the underlying mechanism of the technique is not well understood-particularly in mid-IR diffuse reflectance. Eric B. Brauns, an Associate Professor at the University of Idaho, has developed an instrument capable of studying the mechanism, using time-resolved measurements. Brauns won the 2015 Applied Spectroscopy William F. Meggers Award for this work (1). He recently spoke with Spectroscopy about his award-winning paper and what it means for the field.
Advances in ICP-MS Detection of Selenium in Proteins
March 20th 2015Selenoproteins play an important role in human physiology and health, and as a result, sensitive methods are needed for their analysis. Joanna Szpunar of the National Research Council of France has been working with bioinorganic speciation analysis and hyphenated techniques for metallomics studies for some time. She recently spoke to Spectroscopy about using laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to detect trace levels of human selenoproteins in cell extracts and about her work with ICP-MS-assisted electrospray tandem MS for the identification of selenium-containing proteins in rice grown on seleniferous soils.
UV Resonance Raman Spectroscopy Analysis of Protein Structure and Folding
March 16th 2015UV resonance Raman spectroscopy examines how UV light interacts with the electrons of samples and provides information about their molecular structure and dynamics. Sanford A. Asher, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, is using the technique to study peptide excited states and conformations and protein folding, with the ultimate goal of helping to advance research into the mechanisms of disease. He recently spoke to us about this work.
Improving Drug Formulation Studies by Lowering the Detection Limits of Powder XRD
February 12th 2015Roughly half of all promising new drug candidates are abandoned because of poor aqueous solubility. As a result, many pharmaceutical researchers are pursuing amorphous formulations, which can show improved solubility. Those researchers need powerful analytical tools to study the trace crystalline structures in those drugs, however. To address this problem, Garth Simpson of Purdue University has developed a powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) method with 100 ppm detection limits. He recently spoke to us about this work, for which he won the 2014 FACSS Innovation Award.
What ICP Spatial Heterogeneity Reveals About Interference in ICP-AES
February 6th 2015Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) systems have an optimal observation height, but measurements made at other observation heights in the ICP should also yield the same accurate analytical results - if there are no interferences. This means that a spatial-varying determined concentration of the analyte can reveal that something - such as matrix interference - is wrong with the measurement. George Chan of the Laser Technologies Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently spoke to us about his work exploiting the spatial heterogeneity of the ICP.
Top Down, Middle Out, and Bottom Up: Mass Spectrometry in Biomedical Research
January 14th 2015Classic proteomic workflows analyze tryptic peptides, which generally weigh less than 3000 Da, using a “bottom up” approach. The importance of multiple and coordinated post-translational modifications compels the analysis of longer peptides (using “middle out” analysis) and intact proteins (using “top down” analysis). Prof. Catherine Fenselau of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland is a leading researcher in this field, and has won numerous awards for her work, the most recent of which is the 2014 Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in Mass Spectrometry. She recently spoke to us about her research with mass spectrometry–based analyses of proteins associated with cells known to be an obstacle to anti-cancer immunotherapies.
Next-Generation Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging
December 15th 2014Infrared spectroscopic imaging has been advancing significantly in recent years. Key to that advance is improving the understanding of the underlying mechanisms that influence the ability to achieve greater resolution and speed. Rohit Bhargava, a professor in the Department of Bioengeering and at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has been elucidating those mechanisms, and won the 2014 Applied Spectroscopy William F. Meggers Award for his paper on this topic. He recently spoke to Spectroscopy about this work.
New Methods in Raman Spectroscopy Advance the Analysis of Polymers and Electrospun Fibers
August 12th 2014Christian Pellerin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Montreal in Canada, is using Raman spectroscopy and the most probable distribution method to quantify the orientation of polymers and electrospun fibers. Spectroscopy recently spoke with him about this work.
Using Infrared Spectroscopy for Real-Time Diagnostics During Brain Surgery
June 1st 2014An interview with Allison Stelling, a recent PhD from Prof. Peter Tonge's group at Stony Brook University in New York, exploring the use of IR spectroscopy for use in intraoperative diagnostics during brain surgery.
Using Passive FT-IR Remote Sensing Measurements
October 15th 2013Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has been used to identify unknown materials, determine the quality or consistency of a sample, and determine the amount of components in a mixture. Gary Small, of the Department of Chemistry and Optical Science and Technology Center at the University of Iowa, spoke to Spectroscopy about his work using passive FT-IR remote sensing measurements.