Guest Editor Prof. J. Michael Ramsey on Exciting Advances in Liquid Chromatography

Liquid chromatography (LC) is the most widely utilized and important measurement technique available to scientists who seek chemical and biochemical information.
The technique is generally applicable to the full spectrum of molecular species that are of importance to the chemical and life sciences; small molecules, polymers, ions, neutrals, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, etc. Obviously, such a powerful analysis technique has led to the development of a correspondingly broad spectrum of commercially available liquid chromatography platforms. As with any area of science and technology, there are still many performance needs that remain to be addressed.

Advancing understanding
The HPLC symposium started more than 40 years ago with the original purpose of bringing the early innovators and thought leaders in separation science together to advance the understanding and capabilities of LC. Today, HPLC – the International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques – is the largest global, multidisciplinary gathering of separation scientists. This exciting event will be held May 11-15, 2014 in New Orleans, USA. Attendees include the fundamental separations scientists, those who utilize liquid phase separations to solve contemporary problems in industry and academic research, and technology developers and suppliers.

Utilizing microtechnology
The HPLC 2014 program will include a focus on specific themes in addition to the traditional topics presented within this symposium series. One specific topic that will be emphasized in the 2014 program is microtechnology approaches for implementing liquid phase separations. Commercial versions of ‘microchip’ modules for LC and capillary electrophoresis (CE) have been available for several years. These modular approaches to implementing liquid phase separations can also integrate sample processing functions to provide more integrated measurement solutions. Such approaches provide for ease of use conveniences and the potential for plug-and-play strategies with custom modules, including specific functionalities that can ‘snap’ into common platforms. Compact integrated implementations of LC and CE also open up the possibility of fit-for-purpose dedicated instruments for applications such as process monitoring.

Expanding CE applications
There will also be presentations and discussions about the trade-offs between LC and CE. While CE can rapidly provide impressive separative performance with compact and relatively simple instrumentation, it is not widely utilized outside of biopolymer analysis, even though it has applicability across a broad range of chemical entities. Experts in separation science will discuss the reasons for the current relatively narrow use of CE compared to LC, and opportunities for expansion of CE applications.
Additional focus topics include the important areas of metabolomics and clinical analysis. These application areas depend heavily on liquid phase analysis systems, coupled to mass spectrometry tools. The 2014 program will include a number of leaders from the field of mass spectrometry, whose experimental efforts require the utilization of liquid phase separations to achieve success.
Many other topics will be covered in the HPLC 2014 program, including column design, multidimensional separation strategies, and separations theory. The exhibition will also feature the latest commercial instrumentation, software and tools related to liquid phase separations, and will see the launch of new products.

Dr. J. Michael Ramsey holds the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Chair at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. In addition to his appointment in the Department of Chemistry, he is a member of the faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences in the UNC-CH School of Medicine.
Dr. Ramsey is also the director of the UNC Center for Biomedical Microtechnologies. His present research interests include microfabricated chemical instrumentation, micro- and nanofluidics, single molecule DNA characterization, single cell assays, point-of-care clinical diagnostic devices, and highly miniaturized mass spectrometry. Dr. Ramsey has published more than 280 papers and presented over 500 invited, plenary, or named lectures. In addition, he has 88 issued and more than 40 pending patents in these areas.
He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Chemical Society, and a recipient of a senior Alexander von Humboldt Award, the Frederick Capillary Electrophoresis Award, the A. J. P. Martin Gold Medal for Separation Science, the Marcel J.E. Golay Award in Capillary Chromatography, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Chemical Instrumentation, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, the American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography, the CASSS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Separation Science, and the Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry.
Dr. Ramsey is the sole scientific founder of Caliper Technologies (NASDAQ:CALP), later renamed Caliper Life Sciences and acquired by PerkinElmer in 2011. Caliper is the leading commercial supplier of microfluidic technologies; tools primarily used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He is also the scientific founder of 908 Devices Inc., a company that develops revolutionary handheld mass spectrometry instrumentation.