by Paul Jacobs, PhD, R&D Director Microfluidic Separation Solutions, and Shanhua Lin, PhD, Senior Director of Research and Development, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Precision medicine is fast emerging as the next wave of medical innovation. Today, many patients still experience a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to treatment of symptoms or prevention of diseases, which often overlooks the biological differences among us. But scientists are looking to a combination of “omics” studies, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics, to provide deeper insights into the inner workings of health and disease and to potentially inform clinical decisions for more individualized care.
Technology has advanced tremendously in recent years and is still evolving to help scientists discover new information quicker and more efficiently. For researchers who study proteomics, which can be notoriously time consuming and complex, workflows that provide faster throughput, higher sensitivity and deeper coverage, even at single cell level, allow scientists to gather more valuable information each time a sample is processed. But more importantly, reproducibility ensures that the discoveries are meaningful. Micromachined high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns, also referred to as micro pillar array columns (µPAC) enable scientists to consistently replicate sample runs in their labs. A new version of such columns now also allows scientists to achieve this at high throughput.
Improving on the basics of chromatography to see more details
HPLC columns are used to separate the components of a sample for analysis. Many different types of HPLC columns exist. They can be of different size, material or contain different chemistries. Choosing which type of column should be used will depend on the samples that will be run through it. In proteomics, low-flow columns need to be used to avoid excessive sample dilution and maximize sensitivity. Recently, a new approach of producing low-flow HPLC columns has been introduced. Traditionally columns have been manufactured by packing slurries of microparticles into a tube or capillary. For the low flow columns that are needed for proteomics, this process impacts the efficiency of the chromatographic column.
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