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The article announces the honor given to two separation scientists, Pat Sandra, the winner of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography Award and Deirdre Cabooter, the 2017 Emerging Leader in Chromatography during the 2017 Liquid chromatography-Gas chromatography (LCGC) Awards.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including the content of the July/August issue of LCGC Europe, including discussions on enhancing peptide mapping techniques, designing scouting gradients, using detectors in gas chromatography.

The article focuses on staying connected with LCGC through social media to receive updates, troubleshooting tips, and technical articles, encouraging readers to follow them on Twitter, join their LinkedIn group, and interact on Facebook for discussions and questions.

The article presents the discussion on climate change accelerating rapidly and posing an imminent threat to the global ecosystem. Topics include simple modifications to the way the measurements being approached enabling significant reductions in the waste generated and carbon dioxide produced during analyses; and improving the sustainability of various aspects of synthetic chemistry.

The article presents the discussion on predicting the retention time or retention factor of a compound being frequently used. Topics include organic modifier in the mobile phase in isocratic separations, the gradient profile in gradient separations, or the pH or temperature; and quantitative structure retention relations (QSSR) being used for retention time or retention factor predictions.

The quantification of endogenously present compounds in biological samples demands appropriately validated methods, in particular because increasing research efforts are aimed at studying the impact of such compounds on human health and disease. International regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicine Agency (EMA), have published a vast number of guidelines concerning bioanalytical method validation over recent decades. Compared with the quantification of exogenous compounds, these guidelines have remained rather vague and unclear when it comes to the quantification of endogenous compounds. Nonetheless, the continuous expansion of studies devoted to the search for endogenous disease markers in the human metabolome has incited the regulatory bodies to include endogenous compounds in a draft of an updated International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guideline on bioanalytical method validation. In light of these recent developments, the main objective of this review article is to provide a clear summary of the different methods that can be used to quantify endogenous small molecules. Because of the increased use of mass spectrometry (MS) in the field of bioanalysis, a special focus will be placed on quantification by liquid chromatography (LC)--MS. Practical recommendations to face this bioanalytical challenge, in particular in terms of method validation, will also be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Falsification or adulteration of medicines and health products is a long-standing issue posing a serious menace to public health. These substandard and falsified (SF) medical products could result in treatment failures, drug resistance, and serious adverse drug reactions. In response to the increasing concern about the occurrence of falsifi ed medical products in the European Union, the Falsified Medicines Directive 2011/62/EU will be implemented in the beginning of 2019. This directive creates a preventive system for falsifi ed medicines. Alternatively to the global regulatory efforts that are being made, regulatory authorities, including official medicine control laboratories (OMCL), also need efficient analytical methods to monitor drug quality and survey the (illegal) market. This review article will give a general overview of the liquid chromatographic (LC) and gas chromatographic (GC) methods used by these analytical laboratories for the detection and characterization of suspected illegal medicines and health products, including lifesaving drugs (antimicrobials and antimalarials), lifestyle drugs (erectile dysfunction drugs), and biotechnology drugs (doping peptides and skin-tanning peptides). Literature published from 2015 until early 2019 will be surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chromatographic method development for pharmaceutical analysis can benefit from in silico steered serial coupling of column segments containing different stationary phases of varying length. Contrary to column coupling through trial and error, in stationary-phase optimized selectivity (SOS)-based chromatography the retention of all solutes is predicted for all possible column combinations allowing a rational selection of the optimal column combination. The possibilities of the strategy now surpass the initial usage in isocratic high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on dedicated commercial column segments, and allow applications in gradient-, green-, preparative-, and in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) on conventional column hardware. Current possibilities, pharmaceutical applications, a downloadable algorithm, and weaknesses of the approach are discussed to allow broader implementation of this methodology in separation science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents questions and answers about the development in separation science, liquid chromatography column technology and three-dimensional (3D) printing to leading industry experts like Tivadar Farkas, Dave Bell and Frank Steiner.

The 45th International Symposium on High Perfomance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques (HPLC 2017), cochaired by Michal Holcapek and František Foret, was held 18-22 June in Prague, Czech Republic. This instalment covers some of the highlights observed at the symposium, including advances in large-molecule separations, multidimensional chromatography, and areas of growing application of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition, trends and perspectives on future developments in HPLC noted from the conference are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this instalment, John Hinshaw presents an annual review of new developments in the field of gas chromatography (GC) seen at Pittcon 2017 and other venues in the past year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 44th International Symposium of High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques (HPLC 2016), chaired by Professor Robert Kennedy, was held 19-24 June in San Francisco, California, USA, at the Marriott San Francisco Marquis. This instalment of "Column Watch" covers some of the highlights observed at the symposium, including stationary-phase developments, particle technology, and areas of growing application of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition, trends and perspectives on future developments in HPLC noted from the conference are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate analytical methods are required to evaluate the presence, metabolism, degradation, and removal of specific compounds in complex mixtures. There is an increasing demand to analyze samples with a wide range of polarities in a variety of applications, including environmental analysis, biomarker discovery, and proteomics. Multiple analyses on complementary columns are often needed to cover the separation of all compounds with a large difference in polarity. This article describes a generic method involving an ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) system equipped with two external switching valves to connect hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase LC columns in series for the sequential analysis of polar and apolar compounds. The method was successfully applied to separate 32 pharmaceutical compounds with a wide range of polarities, which could be useful for analyzing pharmaceutical compounds in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The throughput of a laboratory can be optimized by selecting the optimum particle diameter and column length for a specific stationary phase. This selection can be made using a step-by-step method based on the recently established kinetic plot method for gradient separations. An example involving the separation of environmental pollutants demonstrates how this approach worked in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a fixed length-variant of the kinetic plot method, it is illustrated how an analysis that is performed near the optimal flow-rate of a given commercial column can, in many cases, be performed between 50-200% faster by switching to a longer column and operating it at a higher pressure -- at least, if the available instrument pressure A admits so. The present article aims to show that short columns are not always the best choice to get the fastest separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the different methods that can be used to compare the performance of liquid chromatography (LC) columns to assess the advantage of using them at high pressures and/or high temperatures. The main focus is on the kinetic plot method. This method, which is based on two simple equations, allows the user to transform the more common Van Deemter curve into a curve describing the ultimate separation speed as a function of the required plate number, or the required peak capacity or the required resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a conference titled Pittcon 2017 to be hosted by the nonprofit educational organization Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy to be held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois March 5-9, 2017.

The article announces the 30th anniversary of the LCGC Europe magazine in the chromatography and publishing industry.