Best of the Week: Reflecting on Women’s History Month, the LCGC Blog, and More

This week, LCGC International published a variety of articles on trending topics in separation science, including our annual award winners and charting one’s path after earning your PhD. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most popular articles that were published this week in no particular order.

We’d love to hear from you! Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in LCGC? Share your ideas with us—we value your feedback and are committed to exploring the subjects that matter most to our readers. Email chroncich@mjhlifesciences.com with your thoughts. Happy reading!

The LCGC Blog: Stop and Smell the Geraniol

Amber Hupp

When Amber Hupp was growing up in Michigan, she learned to associate pleasant memories with the smell of rose bushes. Now, as a chemist, she spent the past half-year on research sabbatical learning about fragrance molecules and how to combine ingredients to create certain scents. In this month’s edition of The LCGC Blog, Hupp discusses her childhood memories and how she learned to use smell to attempt to bring those long-past scents back to reality.

FeMS Members Reflect on the Meaning of Women’s History Month

Aaron Acevedo

As part of our Women’s History Month coverage, we sat down with members of Females in Mass Spectrometry, a community-led initiative to create a network of support for women in the field of mass spectrometry, work to create communities where female analytical chemists can flourish. We spoke with with Silvia Radenkovic of UMC Utrecht, Ezgi Gürler of BIOCEV, and Iulia Macavei of Evosep.

Inside the Laboratory: The Mead Group at UNC Wilmington and the North Carolina PFAS Testing Network

Will Wetzel

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemicals that are often used in industrial and consumer products. These synthetic chemicals have a resistance to heat, water, and oil, which makes them valuable for numerous products. The North Carolina PFAS Testing Network is working on studying the effects of PFAS in the environment to inform regulators so that public policy can help solve this growing problem. Ralph Mead, the lead investigator of the Mead Group at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, is working with the North Carolina PFAS Testing Network to advance the coalition’s aims. This interview kicks off our last interview series on how North Carolina researchers are using chromatography to study PFAS in the environment.

Changing Lives Through Vaccine Development: An Interview with Ezgi Gürler of FeMS

Aaron Acevedo

We recently had a chance to speak with members of Females in Mass Spectrometry (FeMS) about their work and what Women’s History Month means to them. FeMS is a community-led initiative to create a network of support for women in the field of mass spectrometry, work to create communities where female analytical chemists can flourish. Gürler completed her bachelor’s degree in biology at Leiden University in Leiden, the Netherlands, and later earned her Master of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ankara, Turkey. In this video, we discuss Gürler’s work with Johnson Vaccine and Prevention and Dalton Lab, learning about her contributions to the glycoconjugate vaccine candidates and the MultiResp RSV vaccine projects.

Investigating the Protective Effects of Frankincense Oil on Wound Healing with GC–MS

John Chasse

A team of researchers from several Saudi Arabian universities reported that frankincense essential oil (FEO) is especially useful in the promotion of wound healing and tissue repair and holds great potential as a natural therapeutic agent for wound management and regenerative medicine. Chemical composition data of FEO supporting this claim was generated by the team using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS).

Overcoming Analytical Challenges in Nitrosamine Detection: An LCGC International Peer Exchange

Aloka Srinivasan, Mayank Bhanti, Amber Burch

In this LCGC International peer exchange, Aloka Srinivasan, Principal and Managing Partner of Raaha, Mayank Bhanti, Senior Director of the Compendial Development Laboratory at the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), and Amber Burch, the Senior Manager of Technical Business Development at Purisys, about the procedural and industrial challenges that come with detecting nitrosamines in various substances.