Waters Brings Awarding-Winning UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography to Analytica 2012

Waters Corporation is exhibiting its award-winning ACQUITY UPC(2)™ System for the first time in Europe at the 23rd Analytica International Trade Fair for Laboratory Technology.

A Gold Sponsor of this year’s Analytica, Waters® ACQUITY UPC(2) System was selected for the Pittcon Editor’s Gold Award for Best New Product at Pittcon 2012 in March.

The ACQUITY UPC(2) System is a new category of separations science instrumentation that gives laboratories previously unavailable options for tackling tough analytical challenges. The instrument is now available for worldwide customer shipment.

Also new to Analytica are Waters NuGenesis® 8 featuring LE (Laboratory Execution) Technologies, a comprehensive data management and workflow solution that more effectively connects organizations’ analytical laboratory data systems to their business information technology systems, and a new line of analytical standards and reagents consisting of an initial portfolio of more than 200 pre-formulated reference materials and reagents for the scientific laboratory.

“The introductions we’re bringing to Analytica reflect strong customer demand for greater problem-solving capability, greater efficiency, and certifiable data quality. UPC(2), NuGenesis 8 and our new line of analytical standards and reagents make this year’s Analytica one of the most exciting in years for us,” said Art Caputo, President, Waters Division.

An Industry-First UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography System

Waters ACQUITY UPC(2) System expands the boundaries of reverse phase liquid chromatography (LC) and of gas chromatography (GC) separations and offers a replacement option for normal phase chromatography applications.

Employing the principle of UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography™, Waters ACQUITY UPC(2) System is a novel analytical system that gives laboratories an indispensable tool for tackling tough-to-analyze compounds including hydrophobic and chiral compounds, lipids, thermally-labile samples and polymers.

“With ACQUITY UPC(2) we applied our expertise in ultraperformance chromatography to the traditional technique of SFC and emerged with a more universal laboratory tool with much broader applications there’s a huge need for this kind of separating power today,” said Harbaksh Sidhu, Program Director, ACQUITY UPC(2) Program, Waters Division.

Sidhu continued, “When we show customers what UPC(2) can do, you can just see the lightbulbs going off. They start to understand it’s not a specialty tool - but a tool they can weave into their workflow on a routine basis, a tool that complements traditional LC and GC techniques and a tool that increases productivity and opens up worlds of possibilities. It’s a huge leap forward in separations science.”

Compressed carbon dioxide, the primary mobile phase for UPC(2), offers numerous major advantages over liquid mobile phases or carrier gases that are used with LC and GC.

For one, carbon dioxide alone, or combined with a co-solvent, is a low viscosity mobile phase that achieves higher diffusion rates and enhanced mass transfer than liquids used in HPLC.

For another, when compared to GC, carbon dioxide alone is a mobile phase that allows separations to occur at a much lower temperature.

Scientists can routinely separate compounds that are less amenable to analysis by LC and GC including molecules having a wide range of polarities.

With its ACQUITY UPC(2) System, Waters is offering several sub two-micron particle technology column chemistries in a variety of dimensions including BEH (Ethylene Bridged Hybrid), BEH 2-EP (2-Ethylpyridine) and CSH (Charged Surface Hybrid) Fluoro-Phenyl. Waters plans to introduce additional chemistries later in 2012.

This combination of chemistries gives scientists the ability to precisely vary mobile phase strength, pressure, and temperature. With the ability to fine-tune the resolving power and selectivity of the system, scientists can exercise better control over the retention of analytes for separating, detecting and quantifying structural analogs, isomers, and enantiomeric and diasteriomeric mixtures - all compounds that are often a challenge to separate by any other means.

A key benefit of the Waters ACQUITY UPC(2) System is the use of inexpensive and non-toxic compressed carbon dioxide as a primary mobile phase that can take the place of toxic and volatile organic solvents that are extremely expensive to purchase and dispose.

New Analytical Standards and Reagents Business

After years of formulating calibrants and reference materials for customers of its own high-performance LC and LC/MS systems, Waters has launched a new line of analytical standards and reagents for LC and LC/MS.

Now being manufactured at a new, purpose-built facility in Golden, Colorado that opened in January of this year, Waters pre-packaged, pre-measured, ready-to-use standards and reagents, totaling more than 200 products, are now available to its worldwide customer base.

“Our customers are under pressure to produce faster, more accurate results consistently in an increasingly global and increasingly regulated business environment,” according to Mike Yelle, Senior Director, Commercial Chemistry Operations, Waters Division.

Yelle continued, “Until now they’ve been held back by the need to formulate, by hand, the standards and reagents that are crucial to consistent LC and LC/MS analyses. It's a significant roadblock and it’s time to give them what they have been clamoring for: a well-qualified, single source provider of ready-to-use certified standards and reagents for LC, LC/MS along with our new UPC(2) system.”

Now scientists can source everything they need from Waters; from pre-formulated, small molecule, single-component standards to multi-component test mixes to protein digest and glycan standards. Over time, the company will add new products to its portfolio in response to customer demands.

For Waters customers, these ready-to-use analytical standards and reagents provide absolute traceability through an unbroken chain of documentation traceable all the way back to the original source materials so that lab managers and auditors can evaluate the quality of chemical measurements.

Secondly, Waters analytical standards and reagents are precisely formulated - every time - which greatly reduces a source of variability, from analysis to analysis, instrument to instrument, and from laboratory to laboratory.

The addition of analytical standards and reagents to Waters product portfolio reflects Waters commitment to providing total system solutions, maximizing the value of Waters technologies.

Connecting Science and Business with Laboratory Execution Technologies

Waters NuGenesis 8 featuring LE (Laboratory Execution) Technologies is a comprehensive data management and workflow solution that more effectively connects organizations’ analytical laboratory data systems to their business information technology systems.

“NuGenesis 8 bridges the gaps, not only in laboratory workflow and documentation but also between departments and between business and laboratory systems. By automatically capturing, managing, and moving information from start to finish, NuGenesis 8 takes manual paper-driven procedures - and thus human error - out of the process,” said Mary Ellen Goffredo, Senior Director, Systems Marketing Waters Division. “Because analysis is performed right the first time, it can improve laboratory information throughput by 50 to 75 percent. Never before have science-driven organizations had the ability to fully and freely collect, process, and distribute scientific information.”

Key to NuGenesis 8 is its newly developed LE Technology, a documentation and workflow solution that guides the laboratory analyst through routine method standard operating procedures.

At their workstations, laboratory analysts are presented with electronic worksheets that step them through the prescribed workflow, ensuring that they complete every step and verifying that all input meets established criteria.

The information they generate is then collected and shared with the QC organization and business systems, such as LIMS and ERP.

In addition to featuring LE Technology, NuGenesis 8 provides access to a suite of information management technologies, including sample management. Using NuGenesis Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN), laboratories can track, assign, and manage samples, tests, and results.

The user-centric design revolves around both laboratory managers, who seek metrics about the laboratory workload, as well as analysts who need a convenient overview of pending tasks and the status of in- process tests. The result is a more efficiently run laboratory.

A First Analytica for Other Waters Products

The following Waters products will also make their Analytica debut:

• MassTrak™ Online SPE Analyzer - The MassTrak Online SPE Analyzer uniquely integrates solid phase extraction sample preparation with LC/MS in a single, easy to use platform that significantly increases overall laboratory productivity and improves results especially for higher throughput routine clinical LC/MS based assays.

• MV-10 ASFE System - The first supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) system to extract samples from up to 10 extraction vessels in a semi-automated fashion using supercritical CO2 as the primary extraction solvent.

• BEH125 SEC Columns - New UPLC® SEC columns complement Waters existing ACQUITY UPLC BEH200, SEC 1.7 micron series targeted for biomolecules between 10,000 and 450,000 Daltons. Waters SEC Columns improve component resolution in less time compared to use of traditional, HPLC-based separations using SEC particles of 4 microns and greater.

• TruView LCMS Certified Vials - TruView™ LC/MS Certified Vials are for scientists working at low analyte concentrations, are concerned with analyte loss due to adsorption and require a clean vial for MS analytical results. Unlike standard vials used today, TruView vials are the only vials tested and certified for low analyte adsorption at 1 ng/mL.

• eXtended Performance [XP] 2.5 micron Columns - XBridge™ and XSelect™ eXtended Performance [XP] 2.5 micron Columns are high efficiency, low backpressure HPLC columns that can be easily utilized across all HPLC, UHPLC, and UPLC Technology platforms. XP 2.5 micron Columns bridge the gap between HPLC and UPLC and provide equivalent backpressure and superior performance to superficially-porous HPLC columns. XP 2.5 micron Columns offer unmatched selectivity choices with three fully-scalable particle substrates (high strength silica, ethylene bridged hybrid, and charged surface hybrid), 14 chemistries (C18, Phenyl-Hexyl, C8, Shield RP18, HILIC, Amide, Fluoro-Phenyl, Cyano, and PFP), and over 180 column configurations.

• SQ Detector 2 - The SQ Detector 2 is the ultimate mass detector for ACQUITY UPLC, UPC(2), HPLC, and GC, as well as preparative HPLC and SFC. Our Engineered Simplicity™ design philosophy ensures every analyst can consistently generate the highest quality data with minimal training.

• Xevo TQD - Xevo® TQD is a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer for quantitative UPLC/MS/MS applications.

• SYNAPT G2-S - SYNAPT® G2-S enables scientists to access the highest levels of information from their most analytically challenging samples.

• ACQUITY UPLC H-Class Bio - A UPLC system that advances macromolecule analysis through multiple-mode chromatographic capability, automated solvent blending, and use of corrosion resistant inert materials.

• ACQUITY UPLC I-Class - The highest performing UPLC system ever engineered featuring the lowest system dispersion and lowest carryover in the industry. Low dispersion maximizes peak capacity thereby advancing chromatographic separations and optimizing the performance of any mass spectrometer.

Waters Scientific Presentations, Live Demonstrations and Workshops

A big hit with conferees every year, Waters is offering numerous seminars, live demonstrations, and workshops on the following topics:

• Regulated bioanalysis
• Forensic toxicological screening
• USP General Chapter 621 Revision Update
• Methods development
• Supercritical fluid extraction
• Amino acid analysis