Spectroscopy products were the overwhelming
favorites of the editors attending Pittcon in 2007.
The 58th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) was held Feb. 25 - March 2, in Chicago, Ill. The six-day event included 1,085 exhibitors and was attended by more than 22,000 conferees, including more than 150 editors and reporters. Attending editors met to share information and highlight new advances in the field. They then voted on which products and technologies that were the best new advances of the year; the ones which they believe should be brought to the attention of their readers. The 2007 Editors’ Choice winners are:
• Bronze (tie): Bruker Optics, ALPHA FT-IR, and Horiba Jobin Yvon, Activa-M
Waters goes gold
The Waters Synapt HDMS system brought home the Gold Award from the editors at Pittcon 2007. Image: Waters Corp.
Waters Corp., Milford, Mass., won the top prize at Pittcon 2007 with its Synapt High Definition Mass Spectrometry (HDMS) System, which made its debut at the trade show. “Synapt is designed to create new possibilities for scientists and researchers who want to take their research to the next level,” says Rohit Khanna, VP of Worldwide Marketing. “We are thrilled that such an esteemed group has recognized this system as the best new product at Pittcon 2007.”
Used in small particle research, protein characterization, metabolite identification, and bio-pharmaceutical applications, the Synapt HDMS system combines high efficiency, ion mobility-based measurements and separations with high performance quadrupole, time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The additional dimension of sample separation afforded by the system provides increased specificity and sample definition, so scientists can extract more information from their samples, including the detection of components previously unseen by conventional mass spectrometers. Visualization and manipulation of the multi-dimensional data produced by the system is performed by DriftScope Mobility Environment software, while operational control is provided by Waters MassLynx software.
Sharing silver
York, U.K.-based Paraytec won the Pittcon 2007 Editors’ Choice Silver Award with its ActiPix UV detection instrument. The editors’ panel comments that the ActiPix is a novel and innovative product that transcends boundaries in its contribution to life and analytical sciences.
Mebs Surve, Paraytec’s Business Development Manager says, “We were literally speechless when we realized we had won the Pittcon Silver Award. This is global recognition at the highest level, confirming our belief in the importance of the technology. The message is that, of all the new scientific and analytical instruments launched in the last year, the ActiPix is considered to be one of the most significant in contributing technology advances which will impact scientific instruments of the future.”
The ActiPix D100 is currently in early stage sales to end users and development partners in the U.K., the U.S., and Europe. The technology is already opening up important new applications and is changing the face of UV absorbance detection, one of the most widely used analytical techniques in the world. ActiPix uses a capillary as a combined sample vessel and lens and allows minute volumes to be measured: pL to nL. It is highly sensitive; over five orders of magnitude in its linear dynamic range.
ActiPix uses an active pixel area detector to capture measurements, producing powerful real-time images. The simultaneous measurement of multiple capillaries allows extremely high throughput in the ActiPix.
The Pittcon Silver Award was also awarded to Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, Calif., for their LTQ XL linear ion trap mass spectrometer featuring electron transfer dissociaton (ETD) technology. Available for the first time on a linear ion trap mass spectrometer, ETD provides important new peptide structural information not available from conventional collisionally induced dissociation (CID) methods. ETD is a new fragmentation technique that improves protein characterization, post-translational modification (PTM) analysis, and top-down or middle-down sequencing of proteins and peptides. The new Thermo Scientific LTQ XL is the only mass spectrometer that offers multiple dissociation techniques, pulsed Q dissociation (PQD), ETD, and CID.
“We believe ETD performed in a linear ion trap is a major turning point for the proteomics community, enabling researchers to pinpoint, identify, and fully characterize more post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and glycosylation than ever before,” says Greg Herrema, president of scientific instruments at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Taking advantage of the high ion storage capacity and fast cycle times of linear ion trap technology, the LTQ XL with ETD allows researchers to conduct rapid, alternating CID and ETD experiments during LC/MSn analysis of complex samples. ETD data is easily processed using a new version of BioWorks software—both CID and ETD spectra are searched independently, with results from both searches combined for easy sorting and comparison. This new system provides the most complete view of a proteome currently available.
Bringing home the bronze
Bruker Optics’ new ALPHA FT-IR spectrometer has a small footprint, enabling spectrometry almost anywhere. Image: Bruker Optics
The Bronze Award for the best new product at Pittcon was awarded to the world’s smallest FT-IR, the ALPHA FT-IR spectrometer from Bruker Optics, Billerica, Mass. With its small footprint, exchangeable sampling accessories, and easy to use software, the new ALPHA only takes up the same amount of bench space as a letter size sheet of paper.
The ALPHA interferometer is based on Bruker Optics’ RockSolid design which is used in their laboratory and rugged process spectrometers. This means the ALPHA delivers the performance and reproducible results of other Bruker FT-IRs. The ALPHA is also insensitive to vibration, so it can be placed almost anywhere and can immediately be operational without any need for alignment.
The ALPHA offers full FT-IR sampling flexibility. User-exchangeable QuickSnap sampling modules allow the analysis of almost any kind of sample (e.g. solids, liquids, or gases). Transmission, external reflection, and attenuated total reflection (ATR) FT-IR sampling accessories are available with the QuickSnap interface. ALPHA’s new Platinum ATR sampling module incorporates a unique one-finger pressure applicator for faster and more reproducible ATR sampling. The platinum ATR is designed for easy cleaning, with a pressure applicator that can be rotated 360° to provide the user with unobstructed access to the sampling area.
The Bronze Award was also awarded to a new innovative approach to inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy, the ACTIVA-M from Horiba Jobin Yvon, Edison, N.J. The ACTIVA-M builds on the success of ACTIVA’s CCD-based design, maintaining the vertical torch-based total plasma view, superb resolution across the 120 – 800 nm spectral range, and huge linear dynamic range. But now the benefits of CCD-based, multi-line analysis are made readily available through sophisticated, yet simple-to-use software tools.
Relying on a comprehensive ICP wavelength database containing information on line width, limit of detection, and dynamic range for each line, M.A.S.T.E.R. (multi-line analysis selection tool for enhanced reliability) software offers a new approach. M.A.S.T.E.R. performs a multi-line selection according to the concentration range of each element and matrix influence, thereby simplifying the development and validation of new applications or changes to routine analyses. Visualization of the selected lines and regions around them allows simple, final validation. Together with IMAGE, which allows a complete spectrum acquisition for unknown samples, Horiba Jobin Yvon presents a powerful software package. ACTIVA-M brings the advantages of multi-line analysis within the grasp of all users, bringing with it greater confidence in results and time savings.
