OMNISEC goes to SCM-7
Hello everyone! This is my first blog so I think I should start by introducing myself. My name is Amy Durrell and I am the Applications Scientist for the separation products here at Malvern Instruments. My role is very varied as I am responsible for pre-sales sample analysis and I see all sorts of samples coming to the labs.
Recently I had the chance to be involved with the launch of our new complete multi-detection SEC system, OMNISEC. This was my first product launch, so it is something I was very excited about. As part of the launch I was lucky enough to attend the 7th Symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules – also known as SCM-7 – in Amsterdam accompanied by the OMNISEC system from our lab in the UK, where we had the chance to show off our new instrument.
This was a great opportunity for me to meet new people, as well as current users of our Viscotek separations products, and hear what other people are doing in the world of polymer characterization. Malvern has listened to a lot of customer feedback whilst designing OMNISEC, so it was really good to hear the first reactions from visitors at our stand. A current, experienced Viscotek TDA user from the Netherlands commented that the changes made to OMNISEC “made a lot of sense”, referring in particular to the temperature control of the autosampler, and the user-exchangeable viscometer bridge.
There was a lot of interest in the autosampler’s new ‘micro-litre pick up’ mode, where samples can be injected at quantities as low as 1 μl with no sample overhead. We spoke to a couple of people who specialize in working with peptides within the pharmaceutical market, where sample volume is not in high abundance, who were really impressed with the ability of being able to measure directly from a 96-well plate, and no sample waste.
Bert Postma, Malvern’s Business Support Manager and all-round GPC expert presented ‘Molecular Weight and Structure of PLA/PLGA with the new OMNISEC system’, which shows some very nice data we collected from polylactic acid (PLA) samples. His talk was first thing Friday morning, not an easy feat after the conference dinner the night before! Typically samples like these are almost impossible to measure by light scattering due to the low molecular weight and low dn/dc in THF, however due to the improved sensitivity and baseline stability of OMNISEC, PLA’s are now able to be measured by light scattering. It so happened that someone from the UK is currently trying to measure PLA type materials, so was very interested and impressed with the improvements made.
We held a competition to guess the number of polymer pellets in the jar at our SCM-7 booth – a tricky challenge as there were 55,433 pellets in total! The closest guess came from Frederic Lynen from the Separation Science Group, part of the Advanced Chemical Analysis cluster at Ghent University. You can find out more about the department in this brochure, Advanced Chemical Analysis.
SCM-7 presented a brilliant opportunity for me to meet with many interesting scientists and hear about the work and research they are doing, while also showing off OMNISEC, which the team at Malvern is very proud of. You can playback the launch of OMNISEC to hear more about the instrument and key applications by clicking here. You should also check out the resources below to find out more about how this system could benefit your research.
Relevant Resources:
Poster from SCM-7: The use of multi detection GPC to determine absolute molecular and structural information about low molecular weight Heparins
Blog Post: OMNISEC – You questions answered
App Note: GPC/SEC analysis of polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) using OMNISEC
App Note: Measurements of absolute molecular weight of synthetic polymers using OMNISEC
App Note: Structure-molecular weight relationships of synthetic polymers
App Note: Characterization of IgG monomers & their aggregates
Tech Note: An introduction to OMNISEC RESOLVE
Tech Note: An introduction to OMNISEC REVEAL