COMPREHENSIVE TWO-DIMENSIONAL SEPARATIONS FOR FOOD ANALYSIS
Interview with Peter Tranchida, about his tutorial at HTC-11
| Peter, first, please tell us about yourself? | |
| I was born in England in Torquay, Devon, in 1966 and came to Messina in 1980 with my family (my father is Italian). I received a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Messina in 1993. After that, I found a routine job in a food industry (Messina), and stayed there for nine years. In 2002, I became bored with my monotonous nine-to-five employment, and I applied for a Ph.D. position in Food Chemistry and Safety. I attained the position, and passed my Ph.D. examination in 2005; | |
| What do you like most in your job? | |
| At University, I have the possibility to learn continuously and enjoy the freedom of research. Every day I think myself lucky that I made the step to the University, even though I work long hours, often from nine to eight in the evening. There are so many rewarding moments in this job; probably, the most exciting moment is my next idea, the next meeting, the next technique I learn, the next interesting paper I read, my next GC x GC application, etc. Comprehensive chromatography enables us to explore the unsuspected complexity of a great number of real-world samples. Each new sample seems like a wrapped present, because you never know what surprise is inside. |
“Each new sample is like a nicely wrapped present, you never know what surprise is inside.”
Peter Quinto Tranchida works at the Dipartimento Farmaco-chimico, Facoltà di Farmacia, University of Messina, Italy. in 2005-2006, he was awarded a year Post-doc contract and, in 2006, attained a permanent position as Assistant Professor at the University of Messina.
Peter, for whom is your tutorial?
It is for all those who are interested in acquiring a broader and more profound view in their specific research field. The tutorial is for analysts who operate in the field of conventional chromatography, classical multidimensional chromatography, a specific comprehensive chromatography area, or to beginners with a sufficient knowledge of fundamental chromatography relationships. It can be anticipated that the highest degree of interest will be observed amongst Ph.D.-level and post-doctorate students, permanent-position academia researchers, as well as chromatography and mass spectrometry specialists operating in the industrial, environmental and clinical fields.
Furthermore, there is still plenty of room for development and new applications in the comprehensive chromatography field and, so, the more of us the better!
Peter, what will they gain by attending your tutorial?
Apart from the information that I will provide, my main objective is to enhance the curiosity, fascination and the attraction of the attendees toward comprehensive chromatography. Hopefully, the tutorial will act as a stimulant for many participants to acquire further knowledge and practical experience in this research field.
What will they miss if they don’t?
Many analysts are still acquainted with a single chromatography view, that is, the alignment of a series of peaks along a single, “rather-restricted”, separation axis. Whoever misses the tutorial will lose a chance to gain an additional chromatography view, namely, the possibility to locate peaks in a great deal of bidimensional space.
What is the tutorial about?
This tutorial offers basic knowledge regarding comprehensive chromatography theoretical aspects, as well as GC x GC - LC x GC - LC x LC instrumentation, method optimization, shortcomings and potential in the food research field. Listeners will understand that comprehensive chromatography, in many cases, can help us to learn much more about our samples.
I will show a variety of 2D CC food analysis experiments, highlighting the advantages of 2D techniques compared to the 1D counterparts, that is, separation power, sensitivity, selectivity, speed (number of resolved compounds/unit of time) and structure (formation of 2D group-type patterns). The potential, and possible problems, of combining a third mass spectrometric dimension to a 2D CC system will also be discussed and a series of significant 3D CC-MS food applications will be shown.
What is the current role of 2Dimensional techniques in food analysis?
In recent years, food matrices have been widely analysed by using comprehensive two-dimensional chromatographic techniques (2D CC), in particular comprehensive 2D GC (GC x GC), 2D LC-GC (LC x GC) and 2D LC (LC x LC). The latter can be considered as innovative methods, and are gaining an excellent reputation as powerful analytical tools. The revolutionary aspect of comprehensive multidimensional (MD) techniques, with respect to classical MD chromatography, is that the entire sample is subjected to the 2D separation. The resulting unprecedented resolving power makes these approaches often an obliged choice when analysts are challenged with highly complex food mixtures.
Where do you see the future in 2D sep methods?
It is my personal opinion that if further hardware and software improvements occur, 2D CC methodologies will undergo a gradual and constant expansion in the following years, enabling a deeper insight into the world surrounding us and in that within ourselves. It is therefore important to extend ones personal practical experience and knowledge, to those interested in basic comprehensive chromatography theoretical and operational aspects.
Conventional chromatography methods are still fine to use in many analytical situations, but fail in others. I personally see the future of bi-dimensional separations in the (many) cases where single-column techniques visibly fall short. However, one must differentiate between the different techniques. GC x GC has been on the scene for some years now, has evolved considerably, and is being used in many academic and industrial laboratories. In my opinion the main disadvantages of GC x GC are the current costs for the commercial instrumentation (and software) and the cost per analysis (mainly for cooling gases). I see a good future for GC x GC, especially if the financial costs are reduced and the instrumentation becomes easier to use. With regards to LC x LC, the approach has evolved rather a lot in the last decade, and now commercial systems are also available. Although LC x LC is not as widely-employed as GC x GC, there is certainly an upward trend in the use of the method. I am of the opinion that the development of more efficient LC x LC interfaces, and software evolution, will further boost the exploitation of LC x LC. If GC x GC and LC x LC are, technically speaking, not recently-invented methods, things are different for LC x GC, which was introduced in 2000. LC x GC, for the moment, is a niche method, and papers have been published only on rare occasions. Hence, it is rather difficult for anyone to make a forecast. For example, GC x GC has really taken off in the last 8-10 years, even though it was already invented in 1991. In conclusion, for LC x GC I have no answer yet on how it may develop, but I see a bright future for GC x GC and LC x LC.
