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Emerging Investigator Series – Ashley Ross

03 Dec 2018

We are delighted to introduce our latest Analyst Emerging Investigator, Ashley Ross!

Ashley Ross is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and a member of the Neuroscience Department and Center for Pediatric Neuroscience. She received her BS in Chemistry in 2009 at Christopher Newport University and was an undergraduate intern at NASA Langley Research Center for 3 years working with Drs. Margaret Pippin and Gao Chen. She received a PhD in Chemistry in Dr. Jill Venton’s lab at the University of Virginia in 2014. In 2014, she became a post-doc in Dr. Rebecca Pompano’s lab at the University of Virginia and was an American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Careers in Immunology Fellow. Since 2017, she has been at UC working on developing electrochemical and microfluidic tools to investigate neurochemical regulated immunity.

Read Ashley’s Emerging Investigator Series paper “Subsecond detection of guanosine using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry” and find out more about her in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on subsecond detection of guanosine using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?
Over the last 10 years, I have focused on developing bioanalytical tools to study complex chemical signaling. My early work in graduate school focused on developing electrochemical tools to study the other important purine, adenosine. Specifically, I developed a new electrode modification procedure which combined carbon nanotubes and Nafion to enhance adenosine detection and I developed a new waveform for fast-scan cyclic voltammetry. My research soon evolved from developing novel tools to studying the release and function of rapid adenosine signaling in the brain. I switched gears quite a bit during my post-doc, where I focused on developing microfluidic tools to locally stimulate live lymph node slices to study the importance of the spatial complexity of the immune system and to quantitate cytokine diffusion within live tissue. My current research interests are focused on developing tools to study communication between the brain and the immune system. This particular paper went back to my roots a bit. We are really interested in guanosine signaling because of its rich involvement in neuroinflammatory processes; however, detecting millisecond changes in guanosine signaling in real-time is not possible with current technology. With FSCV, we are able to explore that rapid mode of signaling.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
I am very excited about the possibility of using FSCV to study brain-immune communication. How the brain and not only its immune system but the peripheral immune system communicates is not well understood, in part due to current technology. We are excited about all the new tools we are developing in the lab to help solve this technological barrier.

In your opinion, what is the biggest advantage of the fast-scan cyclic voltammetry method for guanosine detection?
Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry has excellent temporal and spatial resolution. With this technique, we can make measurements every 100 ms within discrete regions of the brain! Because we get a cyclic voltammogram, we are able to help distinguish what we are measuring. In the case of guanosine, a rapid extracellular signaling profile exists but the current techniques in the field to study guanosine signaling do not have the temporal resolution to capture it. With FSCV, we are hoping we can learn some interesting things about guanosine signaling in the brain!

What do you find most challenging about your research?
The biology! The brain and immune system are so complex! You can develop a technique on the bench but it can fail as soon as it is put into a complex matrix like tissue. Also, it is really difficult to predict what to expect when studying complex biological systems. We make hypotheses but I tell my students to not fall in love with those ideas! Everything can change when you start making actual measurements!

How do you spend your spare time?
I am a mother of two beautiful children, 6 year old Haylee and 3 year old Elijah. My husband Ronnie and I definitely spend most of our spare time with them. My daughter is in ballet, so chauffeuring her around to ballet practice and rehearsals is fun! I also enjoy singing in my spare time. I have been singing and performing since high school so it is definitely a nice “outlet” from work!

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I have always loved to perform whether it be in singing groups or in musicals, so probably a performer! But more realistically, maybe a paediatrician!

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
I was given this advice and I think it is so valuable: In the early years, be in the lab with your students! When you are starting out, you are the expert and can help not only set the example in the lab but it helps foster a productive environment early on.

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Emerging Investigator Series – Peng Miao

26 Sep 2018

We are delighted to introduce our latest Analyst Emerging Investigator, Peng Miao!

Dr Peng Miao received his BS and MS degrees from School of Life Sciences at Nanjing University in 2008 and 2011. Afterwards, he received his PhD degree from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Biophysics. In 2017, he became a Professor at Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 21 (Web of Science), authored 15 patents and 2 books. He has received numerous awards and honours, including Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Top 1% of Highly Cited Authors (RSC), CAS President’s Award (Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Science and Technology Award (China Association for Instrumental Analysis). His current research is focused on DNA nanotechnology based bioanalytical chemistry

Read Peng Miao’s Emerging Investigator Series paper “Ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of miRNA based on DNA strand displacement polymerization and Ca2+-dependent DNAzyme cleavage” and find out more about him in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor for miRNA evaluation. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?
My first article is about the fabrication of an electrochemical biosensor for the detection of glutathione, which is amplified by DNA modified gold nanoparticles (Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2009, 3347). Later, I was encouraged to develop more efficient signal amplification strategies aided by bottom-up or top-down DNA assembly. After nearly ten years’ efforts, I have developed a series of ultrasensitive biosensors for the detection of different biomolecules including the most recent article, in which strand displacement polymerization and DNAzyme cleavage cycles are involved for dual amplified detection of miRNA.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
DNA is nature’s choice for storing and transmitting genetic information, which is also an excellent nanoscale material to construct bio-architectures for analytical purposes. Taking advantages of the properties like predictable Watson-Crick base pairing and addressability, bottom-up and top-down design principles can be achieved to sensitively identify targets or study molecular interactions, which are really exciting.

In your opinion, what are the most promising applications of this miRNA detection method?
This paper reported an ultrasensitive electrochemical miRNA sensing method with cascade signal amplification. It is capable of monitoring miRNA levels in cells without sample enrichment in a highly selective manner. Therefore, this method could find potential practical applications in miRNA related biological researches. It could also be used as a candidate to replace qRT-PCR for clinical diagnosis.

What do you find most challenging about your research?
The most challenge is to accurately control multiple DNA assembly events at the nano-bio interface.

How do you spend your spare time?
Playing badminton and electronic sports.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
Maybe a programmer.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
In the early career, scientists should scrupulously choose their research areas and their research work should not be decentralized.

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Professor Laura Lechuga: New Analyst Associate Editor

22 Jun 2018

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Laura Lechuga as Associate Editor to the Analyst Editorial Board. Laura will start as an Analyst Associate Editor on the 1st July 2018.

Laura Lechuga is the CSIC Research Professor at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Spain. She is the leader of the ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, which focusses on the technological development of nanophotonic biosensors, their integration into portable lab-on-a-chip platforms and their application in clinical and environmental diagnostics.

Professor Lechuga gained her PhD in chemistry in 1992 from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Between 2012 and 2015 she was an adjunct professor at the University of Norway within their department of Physics and Technology at the Artic. She has also been a distinguished visiting professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Sciences of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil) since 2013.

We welcome Professor Lechuga and her expertise to the Analyst Editorial Board as an Associate Editor. Submit your articles to Professor Lechuga from the 1st of July 2018!

You can keep up to date with the latest developments from Analyst by signing up for free table of contents alerts and monthly e-newsletters.

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Emerging Investigator Series – Yi-Lun Ying

22 Jun 2018

We are delighted to introduce our first Analyst Emerging Investigator, Yi-Lun Ying!

Dr Yi-Lun Ying is the Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST). Her B. Sc in Fine Chemistry and Ph. D in Analytical Chemistry are all from the ECUST. After a doctoral exchange studying in the University of Birmingham, Dr Ying carried out her postdoctoral research on nanopores and nanoelectrodes at ECUST. Since 2016, she started her independent work as an associate professor to focus on the nanospectroelectrochemistry for revealing the heterogeneous structure-activity relationship of the single molecules at ECUST. She has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, including Nature Nanotechnology (1), Journal of American Chemistry Society (1), Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2), CHEM (1), Chemical Science (3), Chemical Communications (11), Analytical Chemistry (8), Analyst (2) and 6 patents. The total citations of her publications exceed 860 with an H index of 16 (SCI Web of Science). She has given more than 15 oral presentations, including six invited lectures, and has served as Editor Board Member for Scientific Reports. As an active and emerging investigator in analytical chemistry, Dr Ying has received six awards and honours, including the L’Oreal-UNESCO International Rising Talents (2016) and Shanghai “Chen Guang” project (2018).

Read Yi-Lun’s Emerging Investigator series paper “A thumb-size electrochemical system for portable sensors” and find out more about her in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on a miniaturised, low-cost electrochemistry instrument sensor. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?
My first scientific publication is about the α-hemolysin nanopore analysis of single oligonucleotide in 2010. In the nanopore measurements, the ionic current directly converts the single molecule behaviours into the electric signals, which mainly requires the high performance electrochemical instrument and software for big data recording and analysis of the ionic current. Therefore, I was encouraged to develop our own amplifier, A/D convertor and software for the high resolution electrochemical measurements. After nearly ten years efforts, our group has designed not only high temporal-spatial resolution instrumentations for nanopore analysis, but also further applied the low-noise amplifier in achieving the thumb-size electrochemical system for portable sensors as presented in this most recent article.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
The performance of an electrochemical sensor is mainly determined by its interface, the instrumentation and analysis algorithm. To address the goal towards sensitivity, specificity, and rapidness of sensing, our group miniaturizes the sensing interface at nanoscale together with developing high-performance sensing instrumentation. These improvements exhibit strong ability for revealing the hidden heterogenous properties of the single analyte at a high throughput. This is really exciting me that strong analytical tools make you deeply understand and “see” the beauty of molecular world. At this moment, we are using our developed electrochemical sensing system to study the function-structure relationship of a redox enzyme.

In your opinion, what is the biggest advantage of this technology and how will it impact environmental monitoring?
Our paper presented a thumb-size, low cost and versatile instrument system with high accuracy and time resolution for portable electrochemical use. Based on sensors of screen printed electrode, the instrument system could be used in electro-chemical applications such as analysis of chemicals and quantitative determination of heavy metals in water. Due to the ultra-small size and low cost (< $15), this instrument system is probably the smallest and cheapest electrochemical instrument system as far as we know. It could be further used in wearable sensors for body fluid analysis, point-of-care diagnostics in local clinic, on-site environment monitoring and tools for experimental education.

What do you find most challenging about your research?
The most challenge is to bring the knowledge of chemistry, electronics, physics, big data analysis together for the comprehensive study in electrochemical analysis.

How do you spend your spare time?
Playing with my 3-year-old daughter

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
Maybe a graphic designer

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
I always believe that a collection of small steps will undoubtedly cover great distances

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Analyst Emerging Investigator Series

10 May 2018

Launched in 2018, Analyst is now running an Emerging Investigator Series, featuring the best work in analytical chemistry being carried out by early career researchers. This series is ongoing, with accepted manuscripts being published in the next available issue of the journal and assembled in a high profile online collection.

We are committed to supporting up-and-coming scientists in the early stages of their independent careers and our Emerging Investigator Series provides a platform for early career researchers to showcase their best work to a broad audience. The ongoing series allows flexibility for contributors to participate in the venture without the restriction of submission deadlines, and will benefit the analytical chemistry community through continued exposure to the exciting work being done by its early-career members. Authors benefit from increased visibility, with individual mentions in the journal content alerts and individual feature interviews on the journal blog. Published articles in the series will be made free to access for a limited period.

Series Editors

The series has three international Series Editors with a broad range of expertise, representing the analytical chemistry community.

Laura Lechuga

Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Spain

Ryan Bailey

University of Michigan, USA

Jaebum Choo

Hanyang University, South Korea

Who can be considered?

Scientists who are within five years of obtaining their first independent position can apply to have their research highlighted in the Emerging Investigators Series. Appropriate consideration will be given to career breaks and alternative career paths. The series will only feature primary research articles, highlighting the author’s research contribution to the field.

Applications in the form of a CV will be reviewed by the Editorial Office and the Emerging Investigator Series Editors. The selection criteria for the Emerging Investigators Series will be based on the following:

Fit of research programme to Analyst scope
Quality of publications, profile within institute and/or community

Articles submitted to the journal for the Series will undergo the usual peer-review process, and no guarantees of publication can be given to successful applicants.

Collection

Read the growing collection of articles.

Interested in applying?

Follow @analystrsc on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest papers in the series.

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Analyst Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2018 Winner

25 Apr 2018

We are delighted to announce that Professor Wei Min has been selected by the Analyst Editorial Board as the winner of the 2018 Analyst Emerging Investigator Lectureship! This Lectureship was launched to be a platform for an early career analytical scientist to raise the profile of the analytical sciences to the wider scientific community and general public.

Dr Wei Min graduated from Peking University with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 2003. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2008, studying single-molecule biophysics with Professor Sunney Xie. After continuing his postdoctoral work in Professor Xie’s group, Dr Min joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University in 2010. He was promoted to Full Professor there in 2017. He is also affiliated with the Kavli Institute for Brain Science and NeuroTechnology Center at Columbia University.

Dr Min’s current research interests focus on developing novel optical spectroscopy and microscopy technology to address biomedical problems. In particular, his group has made important contributions to the development of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy and its broad application in biomedical imaging including bioorthogonal chemical imaging of small molecules and super-multiplex vibrational imaging.

Dr Min’s work has been recognized by a number of honours, including: Coblentz Award of Molecular Spectroscopy (2017); the ACS Early Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry (2017); Buck-Whitney Award of American Chemical Society (2015); Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2015); George Fraenkel Fund Award (2014); Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2013); NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2012); and Faculty Finalist of Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences (2012).

The award will be presented to Dr Min at SciX 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2018, where Dr Min will be delivering his plenary lecture.

Once again, we would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Dr Min on this well-deserved award.

Read Dr Min’s most recent Analyst papers:

A ratiometric Raman probe for live-cell imaging of hydrogen sulfide in mitochondria by stimulated Raman scattering

Analyst, 2018, 143, 4844-4848 (free to access until 19 Nov 2018 with an RSC Publishing Account!)

Applications of vibrational tags in biological imaging by Raman microscopy

Analyst, 2017, 142, 4018-4029

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Submit your work to the SPEC 2018 Themed Collection!

23 Nov 2017

10^th SPEC Conference 2018, Glasgow, UK

10^th June – 15^th June 2018

Analyst is delighted to announce that a themed collection based on the SPEC 2018 conference, to be held in Glasgow, 10^th June – 15^th June, is open for submissions! This collection will be guest-edited by Organising Committee Chair Matthew J. Baker from the University of Strathclyde, UK.

SPEC2018 will feature high quality presentations from scientists and clinicians, both from academia and industry, who are developing spectroscopic instrumentation and techniques to improve world health. This meeting will reflect on developments over the last two decades and look forward towards exciting future opportunities.

The Analyst SPEC2018 themed collection welcomes all delegates to submit their research to the journal. Papers can be based on oral or poster presentations to be given at SPEC2018, or on any other work that falls within the scope of both the journal and the conference. For more information on the journal scope, please visit our website. The submission deadline has been extended until 15th July 2018. The collection will be published in late 2018 and will receive extensive promotion and high visibility within the analytical chemistry community.

Click on the covers below to take a look at the high quality work featured in previous SPEC themed issues:


SPEC2016	SPEC2014	SPEC2012

For further information about the scope of the collection or about submitting your work please get in touch: analyst-rsc@rsc.org

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

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SciX 2017, Reno, USA

30 Oct 2017

SciX 2017, a conference featuring cutting edge developments in analytical sciences, instrumentation and unique applications, was held in Reno, NV from October 8-13, 2017.

Award-Winning Scientists

The Sir George Stokes Award recognizes outstanding and sustained contributions to analytical science by someone demonstrably working in a complementary field, which has led to developments of seminal importance to chemical analysis. It is awarded biennially and the winner is chosen by the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division Awards Committee. We are delighted to announce that this year the award was presented to Tony Cass from Imperial College London at SciX 2017 in Reno. Tony presented his prize lecture on Tackling Global Health Challenges with Biosensor Technologies on the 9th of October. Congratulations Tony!

Analyst Chair Duncan Graham presents Tony Cass with the Sir George Stokes Award in Reno, NV

It also gives us great pleasure to announce that Analyst Chair Duncan Graham and Analytical Methods Editor-in-Chief Scott Martin both received awards at SciX 2017. The Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy was awarded to Duncan Graham, who delivered his Plenary lecture “Mann up, SERS Can be Useful!” on Tuesday 10th October. Scott Martin was the recipient of the AES Mid-Career Award. After being presented with his award, Scott delivered a plenary lecture titled “Using Microchip Electrophoresis and Electrochemical Detection to Investigate Cellular Communication”. We are extremely proud of Scott and Duncan. Congratulations on well-deserved awards.

Duncan Graham, Chair of Analyst, is presented with the Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy by Ian Lewis from Kaiser Optical Systems

Analytical Methods Editor-in-Chief Scott Martin receives the AES Mid-Career Award from Mark Hayes, Arizona State University

RSC Sessions

Maria Southall, Deputy Editor of Analyst and Analytical Methods, attended SciX and chaired two Royal Society of Chemistry sessions – the RSC Sensors for Cancer Diagnostics session and the RSC Award session. Both sessions featured excellent presentations from experts in the field of analytical chemistry. The RSC Award session showcased the work of Danny O’Hare (Imperial College London, UK), Eiry Kobatake (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan), Xian-En Zhang (Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) and Gianfranco Gilardi (University of Torino, Italy). At the RSC Sensors for Cancer Diagnostics session, Analyst Associate Editors Steven Soper (University of Kansas, USA) and Jean-Francois Masson (University of Montreal, Canada) presented some of their research, along with Analytical Methods Advisory Board member Amanda Hummon (University of Notre Dame, USA) and Peter Gardner from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.

Photo from left to right: Eiry Kobatake, Xian-En Zhang, Maria Southall (RSC), Tony Cass, Gianfranco Gilardi, Danny O’Hare

Thank you to all our session speakers!

Spring SciX 2018

Spring SciX is a UK-based meeting of the successful SciX series, covering a wide range of analytical chemistry research, with a focus on early career researchers. Join leaders in the analytical sciences as they present progress on emergent topics, meet with exhibitors, and network over four days in Glasgow. Find out more at http://springscix.org/

We hope to see you there!

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Next-wave Advances in Single Cell Analyses – Themed Issue in Progress!

18 Oct 2017

Analyst is planning a themed issue to highlight next-wave advances in single cell analyses.

The emphasis of this themed issue is on emerging analytical advances in metabolomic, lipidomic, proteomic, and glycomic approaches, as well as high-dimensional approaches that unify multiple aspects of single-cell biology and medicine. We recognize that single-cell genomics and transcriptomics have received wide attention, due to the maturing impact of these established approaches. Here, we aim to highlight the next generation of important analytical approaches and implications.

Guest Editors

This collection will be co-guest edited by Analyst Associate Editor Takehiko Kitamori (University of Tokyo, Japan), Amy Herr (University of California, Berkeley, USA), Ulf Landegren (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Masood Kamali-Moghaddam (Uppsala University, Sweden).


Takehiko Kitamori	Amy Herr	Ulf Landegren	Masood Kamali-Moghaddam

Contribute to this collection

We welcome submissions of original research and review articles. Articles will be added to the collection as they are accepted and the resulting issue will benefit from extensive promotion.

Read the growing collection of articles at rsc.li/advances-in-single-cell-analyses

About Analyst

Guided by Editor-in-Chief Duncan Graham and an international team of associate editors and editorial board members, Analyst publishes analytical and bioanalytical research that reports premier fundamental discoveries and inventions, and the applications of those discoveries, unconfined by traditional discipline barriers.

Ready to contribute?

Email analyst-rsc@rsc.org or submit online at www. mc.manuscriptcentral.com/an

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Congratulations to the Analytical Research Forum 2017 prize winners!

26 Jul 2017

The Analytical Research Forum 2017 was held on the 7^th of July at Burlington House in London. The interdisciplinary one-day event featured invited talks, flash presentations and poster presentations on an impressive range of analytical techniques and applications. From the analysis of the hidden art beneath Rembrandt’s paintings to conducting life science experiments in outer space, the variety and calibre of work was of the highest standard.

Invited talks were given by Elaine Holmes (Imperial College, UK), Perdita Barran (University of Manchester, UK), David Peggie (National Gallery, UK) and Tony Ricco (NASA Research Laboratory, USA). Contributed talks and flash presentation sessions also enabled more participants to present a snapshot of their research to the analytical community.

Prizes were awarded by the RSC Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund to the best contributed talks and flash presentations. We are pleased to offer our congratulations to the prize winners:

Becki Scott (KU Leuven, Belgium), Contributed Talk, First Prize
Thomas Smith (University of Sheffield, UK), Contributed Talk, Second Prize
Ryan Kane (University of Strathclyde, UK), Flash Presentation, First Prize
Yuko P. Y. Lam (University of Warwick, UK) and Emily Kempa (University of Manchester, UK), Flash Presentations, joint Second Prize.

The Royal Society of Chemistry also awarded subscriptions to our journals Analyst, Analytical Methods and Lab on a Chip as prizes for the best posters on the day. We are delighted to recognise the excellent work of the following prize recipients:

Fay Nicolson (University of Strathclyde, UK) for a poster entitled “Through barrier detection using handheld surface enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy”
Saba Al-Obaidy (Hull University, UK) for a poster entitled “Simple microfluidic platform to evaluate biological inspired nano-particles for focussed delivery of anti-bacterials”
Andrew Donohoe (Dublin City University, Ireland) for a poster entitled “Development of cost effective sensors for the in-situ monitoring of heavy metals”

Congratulations to Fay, Saba and Andrew for presenting top class analytical research!

Andrew Donohoe and Fay Nicholson accept their awards from Melissa Hanna-Brown,
President of the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division

Congratulations to all the prize winners and many thanks to all the participants who contributed to a vibrant and exciting meeting!

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