Concentrating on Chromatography

When DNA is absent, incomplete, or difficult to interpret, what other evidence can help forensic investigators make meaningful connections? In this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography , David Oliva speaks with Dr. Candice Bridge of the University of Central Florida and the National Center for Forensic Science about the emerging field of forensic lubricant analysis . Dr. Bridge explains how...

He built a gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer small enough to fit in a carry-on suitcase, then hauled it up a 43-meter tower in 100-degree Alabama heat to catch invisible forest chemicals in real time. Austin "Augie" Dobrecevich, a PhD researcher at the University of Washington, joins Candi and David to break down how his ultra-fast GC captures a full chromatogram every single secon...

Arielle Cocozza, National Technical PFAS Lead at ALS USA Environmental, joins David Oliva and Candi Gokey to break down the current state of PFAS analysis — from her unconventional path out of a physics degree into environmental chemistry, to standardizing PFAS methods across a national lab network. In this episode, Arielle explains what PFAS actually are and why their fluorine-carbon bonds make t...

Mauricio Caraballo, PhD, director of the MSCollaboratory at UC San Diego, joins Candi Gokey and host David Oliva to unpack how untargeted LC-MS/MS metabolomics reveals hidden chemistry in coral reefs, fish, and ocean water. They dig into molecular networking, GNPS, and how free mass spec training is helping marine scientists worldwide analyze samples they couldn't otherwise decode. Links: msco...

Mechanical engineer Mason Chilmonczyk, PhD (Andson Biotech) joins host David Oliva to explain why sample prep — not the mass spec itself — is the biggest bottleneck in LC-MS and native MS workflows. Mason breaks down the DynaChip, a microfluidic device that shrinks hours of buffer exchange into seconds, and shares how "democratizing" mass spec is opening the door for cell therapy manufac...

Dr. Emanuela Gionfriddo, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo, joins host David Oliva to explore solid phase microextraction (SPME), green analytical chemistry, and PFAS analysis. Trained in Professor Janusz Pawliszyn's lab at the University of Waterloo — where SPME was invented — she shares how deep SPME theory reshaped her research and now drives her lab's work o...

On this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography, hosts David Oliva  @Organomation  and Candice Gokey are joined by Matthew Lewis  @Bruker  to unpack the new hybrid metabolomics workflow born from Bruker's acquisition of  @biocrates  .For 20 years, mass spectrometrists have had to choose between targeted quantitation and untargeted discovery. Matthew explains how chemical derivatization, high-re...

If you take a handful of dirt from the roadside, it contains PFAS. The challenge isn't finding forever chemicals — it's finding all of them. Standard monitoring methods cover 40 to 50 PFAS species. Thousands more go completely unmeasured. That's the gap Dr. Viktoria Müller has spent her career trying to close. Viktoria is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz specializing...

In this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography, David Oliva and co‑host Candi Gokey sit down with Dr. Pierre‑Hugues (PH) Stefanuto to explore how comprehensive GC×GC‑TOFMS breathomics is reshaping asthma research and personalized medicine. PH shares his journey from forensic applications (yes, even the “smell of death”) to non‑invasive exhaled breath analysis for chronic lung inflammation, and...

In this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography, host David Oliva is joined for the first time by co-host Candice (Candi) Gokey — PhD candidate at UC San Diego / San Diego State University and expert in LC-MS/MS method development for untargeted metabolomics to interview Jacob Russell, a third-year PhD student in the Riley Research Group at the University of Washington (Seattle).Jacob's res...

Chemistry doesn't end when the reaction is finished. In many research labs, chromatography is what allows scientists to understand whether their chemistry actually worked. In this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography, we sit down with Dr. Madalyn Radlauer, Associate Professor of Chemistry at San José State University, to discuss how her research group combines polymer chemistry, catalysi...

In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  ,  @Organomation  General Manager David Oliva sits down with Michelle Taylor, Editor-in-Chief of LabCompare, to go behind the scenes of their groundbreaking two-part documentary series on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). The conversation kicks off with a startling revelation: many of the world’s leading PFAS experts have completely stopped eating...

In this episode of  ⁨@ChromatographyTalk⁩  ,  @Organomation  General Manager David Oliva sits down with Imad Haidar Ahmad, Scientific Research Director at Amgen leading separations for Discovery Chemistry and Externalization. Imad's career spans Novartis, Merck, and now Amgen, and his research on computer-assisted method development has landed multiple front covers in Analytical Chemistry. We...

What if you could assess a tumor's metastatic potential — without extensive sample prep — directly from tissue? Rachel Wood is working on exactly that. Rachel Wood is a PhD candidate at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario), working jointly in the labs of Dr. Richard Oleschuk (Chemistry) and Dr. Chris Nicoll (Pathology & Molecular Medicine). Her research applies Ambient Ionization Mas...

What if you could compress 179 days of grueling laboratory workflow into just 14 hours? In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  ,  @Organomation  General Manager David Oliva sits down with analytical chemist Laura Penabad to discuss her groundbreaking new research in biocatalysis and high-throughput screening. Evolving engineered enzymes typically requires checking thousands of variants—a massive...

Chromatography software hasn't fundamentally changed in decades — but the peaks it's trying to measure have gotten a lot harder to solve. In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  I sit down with Ron Brown, creator of PeakFit and PeakLab, and returning guest Dr. M. Farooq Wahab, analytical chemist and research engineering scientist at the University of Texas at Arlington, to dig into the re...

Welcome back to another episode of Concentrating on Chromatography! In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  host David Oliva sits down with Dr. Ansgar Korf, CEO and Co-Founder of mzio GmbH, to explore how their vendor-agnostic platform is fundamentally changing how researchers and industrial users extract value from complex mass spectrometry data. Historically rooted in the open-source academic c...

Can sustainability actually make laboratories more efficient—and more profitable? In this episode of Concentrating on Chromatography,  @Organomation  General Manager David Oliva sits down with James Connelly, CEO of My Green Lab, to discuss how a grassroots movement founded by scientists evolved into the leading global organization for laboratory sustainability. James explains why sustainability i...

Why should analytical chemists, chromatographers, and researchers care about science communication? Is publishing papers enough? How can scientists increase their visibility without spending hours on social media? In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  , David is joined by Lisa Jones and Johnnie Aycock, co-hosts of  @TheNoonShow100.1  and creators of the upcoming BrightPath program on Alabama Pu...

In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  David sits down with Dr. Darshil Patel, Assistant Professor of Forensic Science at the University of North Dakota, to discuss his remarkable journey from dentistry in India to becoming a leading researcher in forensic chemistry across Australia, Canada, and the United States. Dr. Patel shares how his work at human taphonomic facilities—commonly known as &qu...

In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  , David speaks with Joseph Corstvet from the Fernandez Lab at Georgia Tech about the future of mass spectrometry, LC-MS metabolomics, and the development of low-cost ionization technologies. Joe discusses his work using LC-MS lipidomics to monitor mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) senescence and explains how metabolomics could eventually become a real-world qu...

What happens when you replace just one atom in an amino acid? In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  David sits down with JC Poutsma, Professor of Chemistry at William & Mary, to explore the fascinating world of gas-phase ion chemistry, peptide fragmentation, and the hidden molecular behavior revealed by mass spectrometry. Professor Poutsma explains how subtle structural changes in biomolecu...

In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  David speaks with Colette Quinn, Senior Director within the Biologics Business at Waters Corporation, about the rapidly evolving world of pharmaceutical and biopharma QA/QC.As biologics become more complex, QA/QC labs are being pushed beyond traditional pass/fail testing toward deeper molecular characterization, advanced analytics, and data-driven decision...

What makes capillary LC so powerful—and why are more scientists paying attention to it? In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  , David sits down with Samuel Foster of Axcend to discuss how capillary liquid chromatography is changing the conversation around LC-MS sensitivity, solvent consumption, instrument footprint, and chromatographic efficiency. Sam explains how lower flow rates can dramatica...

How are PFAS regulations changing, and what role will ion chromatography play in the future of environmental testing? In this episode of  @ChromatographyTalk  , David interviews Jay Gandhi, PhD, Vertical Markets Manager at Metrohm USA, for an in-depth discussion on PFAS analysis, the rise of AOF (Adsorbable Organic Fluorine) testing, and the development of EPA 1621 and ISO 18127 standards. With mo...