A Guide to Bioanalytical and Imaging at Pittcon 2018

Bioanalytical imaging technology holds important utility in clinical research, drug development and monitoring, as well as food safety. Over time, these tools have become more sophisticated in their approach to obtaining qualitative and quantitative data for a wide variety of biomedical applications.

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Bioanalytical Imaging: Techniques, Technology, and Research

At Pittcon 2018, held this year in Orlando, Fl, Feb 26 - March 1, attendees will be able to learn more about bioanalytical imaging platforms and techniques from experts in the field, as well as from exhibiting companies who will be demonstrating their advanced analytical technologies.

Dr Hell will be explaining the science and bioanalytical technology behind breaking the diffraction barrier in fluorescence microscopy.This includes one of this years keynote speakers, Dr Stefan Hell, presenting the Plenary Lecture.

Additionally, Pittcon 2018 will also hear from speakers discussing ambient ionization techniques for simplifying mass spectrometry (MS) analyses, and using bioanalytical methods, such as liquid chromatography MS (LC-MS), in the cannabis testing industry. During this talk, it will be discussed how these techniques can aid in testing cannabis for potency, pesticides, residual solvents, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and moisture.

Additionally, Amanda Hummon of the University of Notre Dame will provide a talk to attendees on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging MS (IMS) for assessing therapy activity in 3D cell cultures. Another speaker, Amemiya Shigeru of the University of Pittsburgh, will be offering a session on scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) for high-resolution imaging of single biological nanopores.

Pharmaceutical Applications

Advancing bioanalytical techniques and platforms have enabled researchers to improve their ability to identify diagnostic biomarkers and detect the effect of certain therapies in living systems. Techniques such as electroparamagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy have been widely applied in the pharmaceutical industry, helping researchers determine the presence of free radicals and transition metals in pharmaceutical products.

Using EPR to detect these species can help identify the stability of the product (eg, shelf life). Bruker, the manufacturer of the EMXnano benchtop EPR spectrometer, will be present at Pittcon 2018 to demonstrate this technology. Also, ThermoFisher Scientific will be demonstrating their workflow solutions for streamlining biopharmaceutical analyses, particularly for protein characterization.

Another presenter at Pittcon, Amir Liba from Agilent, will be discussing the use of inorganic MS for assessing new biopharmaceutical applications and how laser capture microdissection MS can be used for evaluating the bioavailability of metal-containing drugs.

Bioanalytical Imaging in Cancer Research and Diagnostics

Oncology will be a hot topic at Pittcon this year as many bioanalytical techniques are used in the field of cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. Current advancements in bioanalytical techniques have provided researchers greater insight into the cellular and molecular activity of living systems. Additionally, these techniques have facilitated rapid disease identification, particularly in its early stages, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality and improving the chances of remission.

ThermoFisher Scientific will be presenting their product line of MS solutions for detecting carcinoma biomarkers for early detection, which may improve outcomes among cancer patients.

Ion mobility-MS for prostate cancer detection and diagnosis will be discussed by Facundo Fernandez of the Georgia Institute of Technology at this year’s Pittcon. During his talk, Dr. Fernandez will present the benefit of using this technology over prostate-specific antigen screening, which can sometimes result in overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

Also, Matthew Lockett of the University of North Carolina will provide a talk on the use of fluorescence microscopy for monitoring cellular activity in tumor-like environments. During this Pittcon event, researcher Frederique Deiss of Indiana University will present a new bioanalytical mechanism that may be used with elastomeric microfluidic devices, which aid proteomic analyses, for identifying single bacterium without culture.

Combining electrochemical detection and paper-based microfluidics, Dr. Henry will describe how this portable, economic solution improves point-of-care testing in the clinical space. In addition, Ametek Scientific Instruments will be presenting their single channel and multichannel potentiostats for current control during electroanalytical studies.Portable and handheld bioanalytical devices for biomedical diagnostics have been in demand in recent years, thanks to advancements in smartphone technology. At Pittcon, Charles Henry of Colorado State University will be offering a presentation on disease diagnosis using paper-based analytical devices.

Nanomaterials Research

The development of nanomaterials in biosensors have also benefited from innovative advancements in bioanalytical techniques. At Pittcon 2018, Bruker and Shimadzu will be presenting their MALDI technologies for identifying low molecular weight molecules in nanometer-scale samples isolated from single cells.

Also, Dr. Shigeru will be discussing the utility of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) for imaging single biological nanopores, which has become a fairly heavily researched field. During the event, attendees can see these types of technologies in action as Hitachi and Zeiss will be demonstrating their compact, tabletop, high-quality imaging scanning electron imaging microscopes for high-resolution surface imaging of nanoparticles.

The use of nanobiotechnologies for cancer treatment will also be discussed by Jian-Hui Jiang of Hunan University. During his talk, Dr. Jiang will present the topic of nanoscale assemblies of peptides and nucleic acids for effective DNA or peptide probe delivery into tumor cells.

Food Industry

In addition to the pharmaceutical space, the food industry has been actively involved with using bioanalytical techniques and imaging technologies for identifying potential foodborne pathogens. Biosensor technologies have facilitated rapid detection of these pathogens and are commonly used to analyze food packaging and various stages of the agricultural process.

Attend Pittcon 2018

At this year’s Pittcon event, experts in the field of bioanalytical technology and techniques will gather to discuss and learn about new innovations in the field as well as those projected for the future.

Attendees will learn about and see product demonstrations on chromatography, MS, mass spectroscopy, micro- and nanofluidic devices, microscopy, and electroanalytical systems. Individuals in academia, industry, or research are welcome to attend this informative event.

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About Pittcon

Pittcon^® is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is the premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science.

Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.

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