ISC 2026 - Day 2

<h4><strong>What if you could compress 179 days of grueling laboratory workflow into just 14 hours?</strong></h4><p><strong>In this episode of ‪ChromatographyTalk‬, ‪Organomation‬ General Manager David Oliva sits down with analytical chemist Laura Penabad to discuss her groundbreaking new research in biocatalysis and high-throughput screening. Evolving engineered enzymes typically requires checking thousands of variants—a massive bottleneck when traditional Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) runs take minutes per sample. Laura reveals how her team built a modular screening platform that shatters this limitation, running samples 128 times faster than standard methods without sacrificing analytical accuracy.</strong></p><p>Laura breaks down the "orchestra" of technologies making this possible, including coupling nanoliter droplet microfluidics with Cyclic Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry (cIM-MS) to separate complex chemical isomers in milliseconds. She also shares the chaotic but triumphant behind-the-scenes stories of her PhD journey—from presenting a "comically bad" early poster at ASMS to recruiting an undergraduate mechanical engineer to build custom automation software from scratch.</p><p>If you are an early-career researcher, a mass spec enthusiast, or curious about the future of synthetic biology and machine learning in chemistry, this episode is packed with invaluable intuition and advice.</p><h3><strong>Video Transcription</strong></h3><h4><strong>From Months to Hours: Droplet Ion Mobility–MS for Biocatalysis Screening</strong></h4><p><strong>High-throughput screening is central to directed enzyme evolution, but conventional analytical workflows can create a difficult compromise: extremely fast screens often provide limited structural information, while techniques such as LC-MS offer much richer chemical insight at the cost of throughput. In a recent interview, analytical chemist Laura described how her work with droplet-based cyclic ion mobility mass spectrometry is helping bridge that gap—providing rapid analysis while retaining the ability to distinguish structurally similar products.</strong></p><p>Her research grew from an initially modest proof of concept into a screening platform capable of analyzing a 96-well plate in roughly ten minutes. The resulting workflow was approximately <strong>128 times faster than a conventional three-minute LC-MS analysis</strong>, opening new possibilities for directed evolution campaigns in which thousands of enzyme variants need to be evaluated.</p><h4>Directed evolution needs better analytical screening</h4><p>Biocatalysis takes advantage of enzymes as highly selective catalysts capable of performing reactions under relatively mild conditions. Directed evolution extends those capabilities by deliberately modifying enzyme sequences, expressing large numbers of variants, screening their activity, and using the best-performing mutants as starting points for subsequent rounds of evolution.</p><p>The process can be repeated multiple times, progressively steering an enzyme toward improved activity, altered substrate specificity, or even chemistry that does not occur naturally.</p><p>But the effectiveness of directed evolution depends heavily on the screening step. The more variants that can be analyzed—and the more useful chemical information that can be collected for each one—the more effectively researchers can explore the enormous sequence space available to an enzyme.</p><p>For Laura, this created a clear analytical challenge: develop a screening platform that was substantially faster than conventional chromatographic analysis without sacrificing the structural discrimination needed for chemically similar products.</p><h4><strong>From an imperfect first experiment to a working platform</strong></h4><p>The project did not begin with a polished high-throughput workflow.</p><p>Laura recalled looking back at her <strong>2023 ASMS poster</strong>, where the early system was still working with standards rather than true isomeric samples. Droplet introduction was slow—around six seconds per droplet—and the signals were far from the ideal reproducible, square, flat-topped profiles expected from replicate droplets.</p><p>Nevertheless, simply producing a droplet signal represented an important first milestone.</p><p>The decisive change came when the project stopped being treated merely as a demonstration that droplet ion mobility–MS could work and instead became a deliberate effort to build a <strong>robust screening platform</strong>.</p><p>Laura approached the problem in modules. First came reliable droplet introduction. Then the ion mobility separation method. Quantification became another independent component. Matrix effects were introduced later, gradually making the system resemble the conditions expected with real screening samples.</p><p>Each layer was tested before another was added.</p><p>This stepwise strategy became one of the central principles of the project: rather than attempting to optimize the entire system simultaneously, individual components were developed, challenged, and then assembled into an increasingly realistic workflow.</p><h4><strong>Finding the middle ground between speed and structural information</strong></h4><p>One of the biggest analytical problems in high-throughput screening is distinguishing products with the same nominal or exact mass.</p><p>Constitutional isomers may contain the same atoms and therefore generate the same mass-to-charge ratio, while differing only in how functional groups are arranged within the molecular structure. Very rapid optical or mass-based screens may therefore struggle to distinguish them.</p><p>Traditional LC-MS can solve many of these problems through chromatographic separation, but a several-minute analysis rapidly becomes impractical when thousands of enzyme variants must be screened.</p><p>Ion mobility offered Laura’s team another option.</p><p>Rather than separating compounds on a chromatographic timescale, ion mobility can differentiate ions according to their gas-phase behavior on a much shorter timescale. In the workflow described in the interview, this created a useful compromise: not the kilohertz throughput possible with some simple screening technologies, but dramatically faster structural differentiation than conventional LC-MS.</p><p>The goal was therefore not simply to achieve the fastest possible screen, but to find a <strong>middle-throughput analytical regime with enough resolving power to answer chemically meaningful questions</strong>.</p><h4><strong>A 96-well plate in about ten minutes</strong></h4><p>That strategy eventually produced one of the most striking results of the project.</p><p>The droplet cyclic ion mobility–MS platform processed a <strong>96-well plate in roughly ten minutes</strong>, while maintaining quantitative results comparable with the conventional LC-MS workflow used for comparison. According to the interview, this represented an approximately <strong>128-fold increase in analysis speed relative to a three-minute LC-MS run</strong>.</p><p>Laura described the successful plate experiment less as a surprise than as confirmation that the modular development strategy had worked.</p><p>Before reaching that point, the workflow had already been challenged through a sequence of increasingly demanding experiments: droplet formation, ion mobility separation, calibration, matrix-containing calibration, and cross-testing analytes at different concentrations. By the time the complete plate was analyzed, each individual part of the analytical system had already been tested under progressively more realistic conditions.</p><h4><strong>What does that speed mean for directed evolution?</strong></h4><p>The impact becomes even clearer when the workflow is considered at the scale of an entire directed-evolution campaign.</p><p>Laura’s manuscript estimated that a <strong>five-round campaign involving 5,000 variants would require approximately 179 days using the conventional LC-MS workflow but only about 14 hours using the new platform</strong>.</p><p>Compressing months of analytical work into less than a day has consequences beyond laboratory productivity.</p><p>It allows researchers to screen more enzyme variants and therefore sample a larger portion of sequence space. But the resulting datasets may also become increasingly valuable for computational approaches.</p><p>Rather than retaining information only about the best-performing enzyme variant, researchers can preserve data describing variants that performed poorly as well as those that succeeded. When genotype and phenotype information remain linked through the well-plate workflow, these larger datasets can potentially provide richer input for machine-learning models designed to guide subsequent rounds of enzyme evolution.</p><p>Faster analysis therefore does more than accelerate an existing experiment—it can change the scale and design of the experiment itself.</p><h4><strong>Balancing ion mobility resolution and signal</strong></h4><p>Increasing cyclic ion mobility separation time can improve resolution, but it also introduces an important trade-off: additional passes can reduce signal.</p><p>Laura optimized this balance experimentally by continuously infusing mixtures containing both isomers and progressively adjusting the ion mobility conditions. After tuning parameters such as wave height and velocity, increasing the separation to <strong>three passes</strong> provided baseline resolution at the high analyte concentrations used during method development.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Concentration, however, also mattered.</strong></p></blockquote><p>At higher ion populations, space-charge effects could broaden peaks and reduce the baseline separation. This meant that the optimal number of passes could not be selected independently of the concentration range required by the final assay.</p><p>Her broader advice for optimization is therefore application-driven: decide first what the analytical method actually needs to accomplish.</p><p>More speed will almost always require sacrificing something—resolution, signal intensity, quantitative precision, or another performance parameter. The key is to identify which compromise the application can tolerate and then optimize the system around that requirement.</p><h4><strong>Solving droplet carryover with a practical compromise</strong></h4><p>Droplet-based workflows present their own engineering challenges, including carryover between neighboring samples.</p><p>In Laura’s system, analytes showed little tendency to partition into the fluorinated oil separating aqueous droplets within the Teflon tubing. The more troublesome carryover occurred closer to electrospray ionization, where a small amount of sample could remain associated with the interface and appear when the next droplet arrived.</p><p>Rather than adding excessive engineering complexity to an already elaborate platform, the researchers adopted a pragmatic solution: a <strong>sacrificial wash droplet</strong> between analytical samples.</p><p>It is an example of a recurring theme throughout the project. The objective was not to construct the theoretically most sophisticated droplet system, but to create a screening workflow that remained sufficiently robust, reproducible, and practical for large numbers of samples.</p><h4><strong>High-throughput analysis also requires high-throughput data processing</strong></h4><p>Accelerating the mass spectrometry experiment created another bottleneck: the data.</p><p>The instrument produced a continuous intensity-versus-time trace rather than a neatly organized well-plate dataset. With small experiments, Laura could manually identify individual droplets and process the results in spreadsheets. That approach quickly became unrealistic as sample numbers increased.</p><p>The solution emerged through collaboration with an undergraduate mentee, Aiden, who helped develop a dedicated software tool for processing the continuous traces.</p><p>Laura defined how the software should behave and how the analytical information should be organized, while Aiden developed the computational implementation. The workflow itself was subsequently adjusted to make automated data processing more reliable—for example, by introducing marker columns that allowed the software to recognize the end of each plate row.</p><p>The resulting tool can accept the acquired traces together with information about plate dimensions and replicates and automatically return parameters including <strong>peak identity, duration, and the corresponding well position</strong>. A later version also generated an automatically populated heat map.</p><p>The experience illustrates how improving analytical throughput often requires simultaneous development of instrumentation, experimental design, and informatics. Making the measurement faster is useful only if the resulting data can be processed at a comparable speed.</p><h4><strong>Mentoring became part of the scientific process</strong></h4><p>The software project also reflects another theme Laura emphasized throughout the interview: the value of mentoring.</p><p>Several younger researchers contributed directly to the development of the final platform. Laura described mentees not simply as additional hands in the laboratory but as scientists capable of proposing their own hypotheses and experimental ideas.</p><p>Working with undergraduate researchers also influenced the way she organized experiments.</p><p>Because their available laboratory time was limited, each task needed to have a clear purpose. That encouraged a more disciplined approach to experimental planning: instead of performing experiments simply because they could be done, the team had to ask which experiment would most efficiently answer the next important question.</p><p>In that sense, mentoring became another mechanism for improving the research itself.</p><h4><strong>The next step: continuous, automated screening</strong></h4><p>Despite the dramatic increase in analytical speed, the current workflow still includes manual operations such as loading tubing and connecting the sample stream to the mass spectrometer.</p><p>The next engineering challenge is therefore automation.</p><p>Laura described ongoing work using the <strong>Venturi effect</strong> to pull samples directly from wells into the droplet system. Building on previous work in the laboratory with 96-well plates, she has already tested this approach with as many as <strong>2,000 samples</strong>.</p><p>The long-term direction is clear: continuous and robust droplet generation, automated handling of thousands of samples, rapid ion mobility separation, mass spectrometric detection, and automated reconstruction of the resulting data into plate-based outputs.</p><p>Combining those elements could move the system closer to the type of large-scale screening required for increasingly ambitious biocatalysis campaigns.</p><h4><strong>Learning mass spectrometry one problem at a time</strong></h4><p>Laura also reflected on the broader experience of developing the platform during her PhD.</p><p>Ion mobility and mass spectrometry initially appeared intimidating, particularly because they combine concepts from analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, separations, instrumentation, and electrical engineering. What eventually changed was not simply learning more facts, but developing the ability to move repeatedly between theory and experiment.</p><p>An unexpected result sends the researcher back to the underlying theory. A better understanding suggests a modified experiment. That experiment creates another observation, gradually building intuition about how the system behaves.</p><p>Her advice to early-career scientists is therefore to accept that this process takes time.</p><p>Advanced analytical techniques may initially appear overwhelming, but understanding develops incrementally through repeated interaction between theory, experimentation, failure, and refinement. Equally important, she emphasized the role of the supportive ion mobility–mass spectrometry community in making a technically demanding field more approachable for young researchers.</p><p>From the first inconsistent droplets to a platform capable of processing thousands of samples, that iterative mindset ultimately shaped the entire project.</p><blockquote><p><strong>This text has been automatically transcribed from a video presentation using AI technology. It may contain inaccuracies and is not guaranteed to be 100% correct.</strong></p></blockquote><blockquote><h4><strong>Concentrating on Chromatography Podcast</strong></h4><p>Dive into the frontiers of chromatography, mass spectrometry, and sample preparation with host David Oliva. Each episode features candid conversations with leading researchers, industry innovators, and passionate scientists who are shaping the future of analytical chemistry. From decoding PFAS detection challenges to exploring the latest in AI-assisted liquid chromatography, this show uncovers practical workflows, sustainability breakthroughs, and the real-world impact of separation science. Whether you’re a chromatographer, lab professional, or researcher you'll discover inspiring content!</p><p>You can find <strong>Concentrating on Chromatography Podcast </strong>in podcast apps:</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1wZg67rCjoGju4yhqxI3tL"><strong>Spotify</strong></a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/tz/podcast/concentrating-on-chromatography/id1788429185"><strong>Apple podcast</strong></a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podscan.fm/podcasts/concentrating-on-chromatography"><strong>podscan</strong></a></li></ul><p>and on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/@ChromatographyTalk/videos"><strong>YouTube channel</strong></a></p></blockquote>

Droplet Cyclic Ion Mobility Mass Spec: Compressing Months of Enzyme Screening Into Just 14 Hours

ISC 2026 - Day 3

Article

Events

Video

Scientists

Interview

The International Symposium on Chromatography (ISC) represents the oldest conference series focussing on separation science. ISC symposia have been organised since 1956 in each even year. ISC is internationally recognised as one of the premier meeting series for discussion of all modes of chromatography and separation science with a broad coverage of techniques and applications.

International Symposium on Chromatography - (ISC)

Organomation, founded in 1959, designs and manufactures high-quality nitrogen evaporators and extraction systems. Known for innovation and durability, their lab instruments are used globally for efficient sample preparation with strong customer support.

Organomation

Agilent Technologies

Technology Networks

Thermo Fisher Scientific

C&EN

Waters Corporation

<p><strong>This presentation will cover products from Agilent that make GC connections more robust by utilizing new technologies that make connections easier, leak free and more inert for any application.</strong></p><p>Topics covered include: Self Tightening Stainless Column Nuts and ferrules, Press Fits, UltiMetal Plus and Stainless Steel Capillary Tubing, Ferrule Pre-swaging installation tool and MS interface installation tool, among others.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker:</strong> Mark Sinnott (Technical Support Engineer, Consumables and Supplies Division, Agilent Technologies)</p><p>Mark Sinnott works for Agilent Technologies as a Technical Support Engineer in the Consumables and Supplies Division (CSD). In his position at Agilent, Mark performs technical support and applications assistance to gas chromatographers worldwide. He has more than 22 years of experience in gas chromatography, including environmental analysis of compounds in air, soil and water matrices, including dissolved gas analysis for the electrical industry. Mark holds a Master’s Degree in Chemistry from California State University, Sacramento, and currently resides in Twin Falls Idaho.</p></blockquote>

Agilent Technologies: Becoming A Better Chromatographer - GC Webinar Series

From Inlet to Detector: Building Better Connections in GC and GC/MS Workflows

Build better GC and GC/MS connections with Agilent. Explore self-tightening column nuts, pre-swaging tools, and inert capillaries to eliminate leaks

Building Better Connections in GC and GC/MS Workflows

<h4><strong>LC Coffee Breaks Free Webinar Series</strong></h4><p>Each episode focuses on answering a specific challenge faced by chromatographers, helping you improve efficiency, solve problems faster, and stay up to date with the latest trends in Liquid Chromatography.</p><h4><strong>Episode 2</strong></h4><h4><strong>Strategies to Identify and Reduce Carryover</strong></h4><h5><strong>What will you learn</strong></h5><p>Carryover can compromise accuracy and productivity in LC analyses.&nbsp;<br>Join this webinar to:</p><ul><li>gain actionable insights into detecting carryover sources&nbsp;</li><li>implement effective solutions for more robust and reproducible results.</li></ul><h5><strong>Why you should attend</strong></h5><ul><li>Get practical, users insights you can immediately apply in your daily LC laboratory work.&nbsp;</li><li>In just a short coffee-break session, you'll gain valuable tips on troubleshooting, method development, method transfer, technology updates, column chemistries, and real-world applications.</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker: </strong>Andrea Hoehnel (Senior Sales Applications Chemist, Waters)</p><p>Andrea Hoehnel has been working at the Waters Demolabor in Eschborn since 2022 and provides on-site support to customers throughout Germany – including application support and training in the areas of LC, Empower CDS and LC-MS.</p><p>Andrea draws on extensive experience with LC and LC-MS in the fields of pharmaceutical QC and food chemistry/food analysis.</p></blockquote>

LC Coffee Breaks: Strategies to Identify and Reduce Carryover

Join this LC Coffee Break to learn how to identify and reduce LC carryover for improved accuracy, reproducibility, and laboratory efficiency.

Strategies to Identify & Reduce LC Carryover

<p><strong>Microplastic pollution is an increasing environmental concern, but accurate analysis remains challenging due to labor-intensive sample preparation methods and inconsistent reproducibility.</strong></p><p>This webinar explores recent advances in microplastic analysis and how automation is helping improve workflow efficiency, consistency, and confidence in analytical results.</p><p>Attendees will gain insight into current approaches for addressing common preparation challenges and discover how advanced technologies are supporting more reliable environmental research and monitoring.</p><h5><strong>Attend this webinar to:</strong></h5><ul><li>Learn about the latest automated microplastic preparation methods</li><li>Explore the latest research on microplastics in the environment</li><li>Discover various analytical examples of microplastics, including those using µFTIR</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker:</strong> Markus Sillanpää, PhD (Principal researcher, Finnish Environment Institute (Syke))</p><p>Dr. Markus Sillanpää is a docent in environmental science at the University of Jyväskylä and a principal researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), specializing in analytical and environmental chemistry. He earned his PhD in chemistry from the University of Helsinki in 2006, focusing on aerosol science. His research investigates the sources, fate, and environmental impacts of microplastics, engineered nanoparticles, and atmospheric aerosols. A highly cited author, his work informs environmental policy and promotes evidence-based approaches to sustainable environmental management.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker:</strong> Kazuki Sobue (Assistant Manager, Application Specialist)</p><p>Kazuki Sobue is an application chemist who has worked in the analytical and measuring instrument division of Shimadzu Corporation in Japan for 12 years. His expertise includes spectroscopic analysis techniques, including fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and raman spectroscopy. He is also a member of ISO/TC 147/SC2/JWG1, where his recent work has focused on the spectroscopic analysis of microplastics.</p></blockquote>

Technology Networks: Automating Microplastic Analysis To Support Water Quality Research

Automating Microplastic Analysis To Support Water Quality Research

Automate microplastics analysis for water quality testing. Discover advanced sample preparation methods and µFTIR workflows to boost reproducibility

Automated Microplastic Analysis in Water Quality Research

<h4><strong>The Problem</strong></h4><p>Closed-loop experimentation has the potential to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, but building the infrastructure to connect automation, analytics and scientific decision-making can be a major undertaking. Researchers often spend valuable time integrating software, moving data between systems and developing custom workflows instead of advancing their science.&nbsp;</p><h4><strong>The Solution</strong></h4><p>Stuntman provides an AI-ready, flexible framework for continuous experimentation. Built-in integration between automation and analytical tools streamlines sample transfer and data flow, eliminating much of the infrastructure required to build closed-loop workflows. Whether using Stuntman's built-in AI or connecting your own optimization and decision making tools, its open architecture gives researchers the freedom to tailor workflows to their own applications, instruments and scientific approaches.&nbsp;</p><h4><strong>The Proof</strong></h4><p>Join this webinar to see how Stuntman keeps discovery moving with automated execution and seamless integration to analytical tools. Watch Stuntman in action and learn how its flexible framework can be adapted to support AI-driven scientific workflows across chemistry, biologics, materials science and more.</p><h4><strong>Key Learning Objectives:</strong></h4><ul><li>Discover how Stuntman reduces the infrastructure and integration burden of building closed-loop experimentation workflows.</li><li>Learn how Stuntman enables AI-driven experimentation, using built-in AI or your own optimization and decision-making tools to guide experiments.</li><li>Explore how Stuntman’s flexible, open architecture can be adapted to different instruments, workflows, and applications across chemistry, biologics, materials science, and more.</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Presenter: </strong>Rick Sidler, PhD (Director of Field Automation Scientists, Unchained Labs)</p><p>Rick Sidler is the Director of Field Automation Scientists at Unchained Labs. He enjoys working with scientists to design systems and workflows, and to provide user training and support. Prior to joining Unchained Labs, Rick spent more than 20 years in the Process Research department at Merck Research Labs, where he was a user of Symyx and Freeslate automated workflows for 12 years. He holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p><strong>Presenter:&nbsp;</strong>Alexandra Taylor (Contributing Editor, ACS Media Group)</p></blockquote>

C&EN: Fast Track Closed-Loop Experimentation with AI-Driven Automation on Stuntman

Fast Track Closed-Loop Experimentation with AI-Driven Automation on Stuntman

Accelerate scientific discovery with Stuntman. Learn how AI-driven automation and closed-loop workflows streamline analytics and experimental execution

AI-Driven Closed-Loop Experimentation with Stuntman

<div><div container-id="cq-colctrl-lt0" comp-id="A1"><div><p><strong>Missed the International Symposium on Chromatography 2026? Explore our posters and talks now.</strong></p><h4><strong>Polymeric, porous, monodisperse particle development and application to reversed-phase separations of biological molecules</strong></h4><p>Join us for a webinar exploring the development of polymeric, monodisperse supermacroporous particles for reversed-phase separations of biological molecules. As oligonucleotides, RNA, proteins, and other biomolecules increase in size and complexity, stationary-phase design becomes increasingly important for achieving effective retention, recovery, and resolution.</p><p>This session will focus on how particle architecture influences chromatographic performance, including the effects of particle-size distribution, pore diameter, surface area, pore morphology, and surface chemistry. The presentation will highlight the development of approximately 2.5 µm monodisperse particles with reduced fines, the relationship between surface area and pore accessibility, and separation examples across a wide polynucleotide size range, including ssDNA, dsDNA, siRNA, sgRNA, and mRNA. The webinar will also discuss how incorporating tertiary amine comonomers can increase oligonucleotide retention and improve separations using mass spectrometry-compatible, ion-pairing-agent-free mobile phases.</p><h5><strong>What you will learn</strong></h5><p>Attendees will gain insight into:</p><ul><li>How monodisperse particle technology can enable smaller particle sizes while minimizing fines</li><li>Why pore size, pore shape, and accessible surface area are critical for larger biomolecule separations&nbsp;</li><li>How surface area affects retention and resolution across short and long polynucleotide samples&nbsp;</li><li>How supermacroporous particle design supports separations of siRNA, sgRNA, and mRNA&nbsp;</li><li>How amine comonomer chemistry can be used to modify retention and separation behavior&nbsp;</li></ul><h5><strong>Who should attend</strong></h5><p>This webinar is intended for analytical scientists, LC method developers, separation scientists, biopharma researchers, and nucleic acid therapeutics teams working with oligonucleotides, RNA, proteins, or other complex biomolecules.</p><h5><strong>Why attend</strong></h5><p>This webinar provides a particle-development and separation-mechanism perspective. Attend this session to better understand the stationary-phase design principles that can influence reversed-phase biomolecule separation performance.</p><p><i>Cannot attend the webinar broadcast? Please register anyway to automatically receive the link to recording.</i></p><blockquote><p><strong>Presenter: </strong>Shane Bechler (Sr. R&amp;D Manager - Column Engineering, Thermo Fisher Scientific)</p><p>Dr. Shane Bechler is a Senior Manager of Research and Development at Thermo Fisher Scientific, with over a decade of experience in advancing biotechnological and chemical engineering innovations. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.</p></blockquote></div></div></div>

Thermo Fisher Scientific: Polymeric, porous, monodisperse particle development and application to reversed-phase separations of biological molecules

Polymeric, porous, monodisperse particle development and application to reversed-phase separations of biological molecules

Optimize biomolecule RPLC with polymeric monodisperse particles. Learn how supermacroporous designs improve oligonucleotide, siRNA, and mRNA separations

Monodisperse Polymeric Particles for Biomolecule RPLC

<h4><strong>Material Characterization, Compliance and Product Insights</strong></h4><p><strong>Join Thermo Fisher Scientific and Frontier Laboratories for a two-week webinar series exploring how Pyrolysis-GC/MS (Py-GC/MS) is helping laboratories solve some of today's most challenging analytical problems. Learn how Py-GC-MS workflows are being applied to emerging environmental contaminants, regulatory compliance, food safety, and advanced materials characterization.</strong></p><p>In this webinar, explore how Py-GC-MS supports PFAS-related screening workflows for food-contact materials and packaging. Learn how this approach helps laboratories address emerging compliance challenges driven by new European packaging regulations.</p><h5><strong>What you will learn:</strong></h5><ul><li>Key analytical implications of PPWR PFAS restrictions</li><li>How Py-GC-MS can support PFAS-related packaging screening</li><li>How laboratory data can inform compliance-focused workflows</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker:&nbsp;</strong>Giulia Riccardino (Sr. Product Application Specialist, Thermo Fisher Scientific)</p><p>Giulia Riccardino holds a degree in Biology from the University of Milan and a specialization in Clinical Biochemistry. After more than 10 years of clinical and toxicology laboratory experience in gas and liquid chromatography, she joined Thermo Fisher as GC product specialist. Since 2018 she is bringing deeper experience in GC/GCMS application development across applied market segments.</p><p><strong>Moderator:</strong> Daniela Cavagnino (Product Marketing Manager GC and Sampling Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific)</p><p>Dr. Daniela Cavagnino earned an MS in Chemistry from the University of Milan. After starting in GC R&amp;D and applications at Thermo Fisher Scientific, she moved into product and marketing management. She has 25+ years of experience in GC/GC-MS for industrial and applied markets, specializing in advanced sampling and automated workflow solutions.</p></blockquote>

Thermo Fisher Scientific: From Microplastics and PFAS to Advanced Materials

Navigating PFAS Restrictions in Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPRW) with Py-GC-MS

Explore Py-GC-MS for PFAS-related packaging screening and learn how analytical data can support compliance with emerging European PPWR requirements.

PFAS Restrictions in Packaging: Py-GC-MS and PPWR

<h4><strong>Material Characterization, Compliance and Product Insights</strong></h4><p><strong>Join Thermo Fisher Scientific and Frontier Laboratories for a two-week webinar series exploring how Pyrolysis-GC-MS (Py-GC-MS) is helping laboratories solve some of today's most challenging analytical problems. Learn how Py-GC-MS workflows are being applied to emerging environmental contaminants, regulatory compliance, food safety, and advanced materials characterization.</strong></p><p>In this webinar, explore how multi-mode Py-GC-MS distinguishes nylon copolymers from polymer blends and reveals meaningful molecular and structural differences. Learn how this approach supports more confident materials characterization.</p><h5><strong>What you will learn:</strong></h5><ul><li>Why visually similar materials can require deeper chemical characterization</li><li>How multi-mode Py-GC-MS supports polymer differentiation</li><li>How to interpret data for copolymer versus blend assessment</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Speaker:&nbsp;</strong>Rojin Belganeh (Technical Director, Frontier Laboratories)</p><p>Rojin Belganeh holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry and an MBA in Strategic Marketing. A former analytical chemist and Frontier user, she brings 15+ years of experience in pyrolysis GC/MS, TGA, and FTIR. She is passionate about helping scientists address analytical challenges through practical applications, education, and Frontier technologies.</p><p><strong>Moderator:</strong> Daniela Cavagnino (Product Marketing Manager GC and Sampling Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific)</p><p>Dr. Daniela Cavagnino earned an MS in Chemistry from the University of Milan. After starting in GC R&amp;D and applications at Thermo Fisher Scientific, she moved into product and marketing management. She has 25+ years of experience in GC/GC-MS for industrial and applied markets, specializing in advanced sampling and automated workflow solutions.</p></blockquote>

When Materials Look Identical: Distinguishing Nylon Copolymers from Polymer Blends Using Multi-Mode Py-GC-MS

Explore multi-mode Py-GC-MS for distinguishing nylon copolymers from polymer blends and improving confidence in polymer characterization.

Nylon Copolymers vs Polymer Blends by Py-GC-MS

<p><strong>Join Agilent and leading researchers as they share how they're navigating complex biology, exploring new scientific galaxies, and charting pathways to breakthrough therapies. From unlocking cellular mysteries to uncovering molecular insights, discover how today's innovations are helping propel research toward its next giant leap.</strong></p><p>All attendees with be automatically entered into a drawing to win a FREE Tablet!</p><h4><strong>Part 1: Using Targeted Methylation Sequencing to Bring Epigenetic Biomarkers to the Clinic</strong></h4><p>Methylation is an increasingly important layer of biological regulation, disease heterogeneity, and clinical phenotype, yet many discovery workflows remain constrained by predefined array content, bisulfite-associated DNA damage, amplification bias, and limited molecular context. Native-read nanopore sequencing enables direct measurement of DNA sequence and methylation from the same molecule, preserving information across CpGs, variants, repetitive elements, and haplotypes. This webinar will describe a discovery-to-impact model in which genome-wide native methylome sequencing identifies informative epigenetic features, and Agilent SureSelect-enabled targeting converts those discoveries into high-depth, multiplexed assays for translational and clinical research. Applications include tissue-of-origin analysis, oncology, rare disease, and other settings where integrated genetic and epigenetic readouts may improve biological interpretation and clinical utility.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Presenter:</strong> Jonathon Hill, PhD (Co-founder and Vice President of Science and Technology, Renew Biotechnologies)</p><p>Jonathon T. Hill, PhD, is Vice President of Science and Technology at Renew Biotechnologies, where he co-leads scientific innovation across the company’s native-read nanopore sequencing, assay development, and translational research programs. He is also a co-founder of Renew Labs and The Robertson Endowed Professor of Cell Biology and Physiologyat Brigham Young University. His work spans genomics, epigenetics, bioinformatics, and long-read sequencing, focusing on advancing new molecular technologies toward scalable research and clinical applications.</p></blockquote>

Agilent Technologies: To Discovery and Beyond Webinar Series

Using Targeted Methylation Sequencing to Bring Epigenetic Biomarkers to the Clinic

Explore targeted methylation sequencing with nanopore and SureSelect workflows for epigenetic biomarker discovery and translational clinical research.

Targeted Methylation Sequencing

<div><div container-id="cq-colctrl-lt0" comp-id="A1"><div><h4><strong>INSPIRE: To Think Differently</strong></h4><h5><strong>Overview</strong></h5><p>Scientific discovery begins with bold questions. As advances in proteomics, computational biology, and systems-level approaches continue to reshape translational research, scientists have an opportunity to rethink not only how research is conducted, but also the scientific questions that are now within reach.</p><p>In this first chapter of the Ride the Wave: Innovation Now for Precision Health webinar series, you'll hear from researchers who are redefining what's possible through bold scientific thinking and innovative applications of proteomics. From expanding precision biology beyond the clinic to revealing disease in ways that were previously impossible, their stories will inspire new ways of thinking about the future of precision health.</p><h5><strong>Featured Speakers</strong></h5><ul><li>Jennifer Geddes-McAlister Precision Health Beyond the Clinic: Applying Precision Medicine Principles Across the One Health Continuum</li></ul><p>Dr. Jennifer Geddes-McAlister will explore how high-resolution proteomics, systems biology, and computational biology are extending precision medicine beyond human health. Using examples spanning life-threatening fungal infections and Precision Crop Health, she will demonstrate how systems-level approaches are transforming our understanding of health across humans, animals, and the environment.</p><ul><li>Beatrix Ueberheide What Would It Take to See Disease Before It Is Visible</li></ul><p>Dr. Beatrix Ueberheide will explore how advances in proteomics sensitivity are making it possible to answer clinical questions that were previously beyond reach. Through emerging patient case studies, she will demonstrate how new analytical capabilities are inspiring entirely new ways of thinking about disease detection and precision health.</p><h5><strong>What You'll Learn</strong></h5><ul><li>Discover how leading scientists are challenging conventional approaches to translational research.</li><li>Explore how advances in proteomics are opening new opportunities to answer previously inaccessible biological and clinical questions.</li><li>Leave inspired to think differently about what's possible in your own research.</li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Presenter: &nbsp;</strong>Jennifer Geddes-McAlister, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Guelph)</p><p>Dr. Jennifer Geddes-McAlister is a Canada Research Chair in the Proteomics of Fungal Disease in One Health and Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph. Her research uses mass spectrometry-based proteomics to study host-pathogen interactions and fungal disease. She is Vice President of HUPO and founder of Moms in Proteomics.</p><p><strong>Presenter: </strong>Beatrix Ueberheide, PhD (Director of Proteomics, Associate Professor, New York University)</p><p>Dr. Beatrix Ueberheide is an Associate Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Director of the Proteomics Resource Center. Her research develops advanced mass spectrometry-based proteomics methods to characterize antibodies, peptide toxins, and protein modifications, advancing our understanding of protein structure and function.</p><p><strong>Presenter: </strong>Moderator: Stephanie Samra (Sr. Manager, Translational Research, Thermo Fisher Scientific)</p><p>Stephanie Samra is the Senior Market Development Manager for the Translational Research Program at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she leads global market development initiatives supporting the translational proteomics community. With more than 15 years of experience in analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry, she specializes in LC-MS/MS workflows spanning metabolomics, clinical research, and translational science. As host of the Ride the Wave webinar series, Stephanie brings together leading researchers to explore the bold ideas, enabling technologies, and transformational discoveries shaping the future of precision health.</p></blockquote></div></div></div>

Thermo Fisher Scientific: Ride the wave: Innovation now for precision health

Rethinking what's possible

How proteomics and systems biology are expanding precision health, enabling new approaches to disease detection, One Health, and translational research.

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