Analyst Blog

Scientists in Japan have developed a technique that could diagnose malaria just one day after infection.

It is estimated that in 2010 over 200 million people were infected with malaria and over 600 thousand people died from it. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted by mosquitoes. The parasites invade red blood cells, eventually causing the cells to rupture and release the parasites so they can infect other cells.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

Raman spectroscopic analysis of malaria disease progression via blood and plasma samples
Alison J.Hobro, Aki Konishi, Cevayir Coban and Nicholas I. Smith  
Analyst, 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3AN00255A

The Gordon F. Kirkbright bursary award is a prestigious annual award that enables a promising student/non-tenured young scientist of any nation to attend a recognised scientific meeting or visit a place of learning.
The fund for this bursary was established in 1985 as a memorial to Professor Gordon Kirkbright in recognition of his contributions to analytical spectroscopy and to science in general. Although the fund is administered by the Association of British Spectroscopists (ABS) Trust, the award is not restricted to spectroscopists.

Applications are invited for the 2014 Gordon Kirkbright Bursary.

For further information contact John Chalmers at, email: vibspecconsult@aol.com

The closing date for entries is 31 December 2013.

Scientists in the Netherlands have developed and tested a new method that uses Raman spectroscopy to quickly identify harmful bacteria in drinking water. This could prevent contaminated drinking water from making people ill by detecting deadly bacteria before it ever reaches the tap.

Many of the standard methods used to test water quality rely on selective plating and enzyme activity tests which take a long time to get results. ‘The bottleneck between collection and results is because microbes need time to grow, or nucleic acids need time to be processed,’ says Jack van de Vossenberg, from the KWR Watercycle Research Institute, who led the research.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

Identification of bacteria in drinking water with Raman spectroscopy
Jack van de Vossenberg, Heli Tervahauta, Kees Maquelin, Carola H. W. Blokker-Koopmans, Marijan Uytewaal-Aarts, Dick van der Kooij, Annemarie van Wezel and Bram van der Gaag  
Anal. Methods, 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3AY40289D

Duncan Graham is Professor of chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, UK. He has recently been named as the next Chair of the Editorial Board for Analyst, and will start this role in 2014. His research areas include nucleic acid chemistry and synthetic chemistry for bioanalysis. Currently he is working on functionalised metallic nanoparticles that can be used for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

What motivated you to specialise in SERS (surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy)?

Duncan Graham

 To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

The first baseline analysis of healthy human breath brings closer the possibility of routine diagnosis of disease from exhaled air. Over 70 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been identified by Pawel Mochalski and colleagues from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who used headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) to pre-concentrate samples prior to their analysis by GC-MS.

Breath analysis for healthcare is a hot topic, with the ultimate goal being a device that can identify an illness from a single breath at your doctor’s surgery. Although this is still some way off, breath chemistry is used currently to monitor some conditions. Exhaled nitric oxide is used to keep tabs on asthma and tuberculosis (TB), while hydrocarbons can warn of the impending rejection of a transplanted heart.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

 Blood and breath levels of selected volatile organic compounds in healthy volunteers
Paweł Mochalski, Julian King, Martin Klieber, Karl Unterkofler, Hartmann Hinterhuber, Matthias Baumann and Anton Amann Analyst, 2013,138, 2134-2145
DOI: 10.1039/C3AN36756H

A mass-spectrometry technique that can characterise and spatially resolve the metabolites produced by bacteria could lead to a better understanding of how different microbes interact with each other, and how their chemistry could be harnessed industrially.

Of the thousands of chemical metabolites produced by bacteria, only a tiny fraction are accessible to the organic chemist using traditional synthetic techniques. Microbes can defend against attack with their own herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics, and encourage plants and animals that are beneficial to their survival by producing stimulants or substances that inhibit pathogens.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

Spatially resolved analysis of glycolipids and metabolites in living Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 using nanospray desorption electrospray ionization
Ingela Lanekoff, Oleg Geydebrekht, Grigoriy E. Pinchuk, Allan E. Konopka and Julia Laskin
Analyst, 2013,138, 1971-1978
DOI: 10.1039/C3AN36716A