All posts by Pickering Laboratories

Pickering Laboratories Celebrates Our 40th Anniversary!

By: Rebecca Smith

Pickering's 40-year anniversary logo

It is with great pride that we announce the celebration of our 40-year anniversary in 2022! 

As part of our efforts to honor this milestone achievement, we created an interactive timeline of our history.  It can be found at the following link: https://www.pickeringlabs.com/contact-us/about-us/#40-year-anniversary.

Our late friend and founder, Dr. Michael Pickering, began this journey in 1982.  As the namesake of our company, Michael’s many achievements are reflected throughout our timeline but also in our company’s logo and especially in our “Guaranteed Chemistry” watermark, which we’ve updated for this special anniversary.  We continue to uphold his legacy of high quality and dedicated support for our customers. 

As you visit the timeline, you’ll be able to relive the important milestones that we’ve reached during the last four decades, including: a United States patent for our Ninhydrin reagent Trione, introduction of our PCX post-column instrumentation, publishment in official methods and many more highlights.  If you look closely at our shiny new 40th anniversary logo, you may even see a familiar chromatogram or two!

We would like to extend a special “Thank You!” to all of the customers and dealers who have joined us throughout these historic four decades.  We would not be a successful company still today without the trust, partnership and loyalty which you have shown us.  As a small business, we want each of our customers to know that their orders over the years have supported and directly impacted our scientific contributions to the analytical community.  We look forward to our partnership together for many years to come, as well.

And finally, we wish to acknowledge that we could not have made this company a success without our most valuable assets: our employees!  As you may have noticed in the last couple newsletters, our very dedicated colleagues have been celebrating a lot of 20th and 30th work anniversaries lately!  This fantastic team works so hard every day to support our customers; we are so proud and grateful to have them. 

Please, we would be honored if you’d pop the champagne, raise a glass, and celebrate with us! 

Cheers to our Pickering Labs family!  Cheers to our customers and distributors!  Cheers as well to sustaining Michael’s legacy for another 40 years! 

And a clink of our glasses for the scientific work we all do in the world.

Chromatography Quiz #40

Chromatography Quiz #39 Rising Baseline – Announcing our Winners!

Pickering Labs would like to congratulate all of our winners for our previous newsletter’s Chromatography Quiz:

A cookie platter

Uwe Aulwurm from LCTech GmbH, David Green from Pepperdine University, Narjes Ghafoori from Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory, Josiah Hakala from Minnesota Department of Health, and Tom Schneider from Suffolk County Water Authority.

Winners will soon receive a Springtime Bakery Tray! Wooden tray filled to the rim with an assortment of delightful baked goods!

Congratulations to our quiz winners!  Thank you all for your submissions!

Answer to Previous Quiz:

What is causing the Carbamates baseline to rise?

Our customers have been encountering this problem a lot recently. The problem is coming from the methanol (channel B). As the percentage of methanol increases, the baseline increases as well. This problem seems to be compounded due to supply chain issues. We recommend getting a new lot of methanol from your vendor and obtaining LCMS grade. If the new lot does not help, try a new vendor. You will most likely need to flush out your HPLC pump to fully resolve this issue. As always, please refrain from using filters in your mobile phase bottles, as this can take contamination from one bottle to the next. Contact support@pickeringlabs.com with any further questions.

Below you will find a reference chromatogram, HPLC gradient table, and bad chromatogram as a refresher from the last quiz.  Keep scrolling to find this quarter’s fun new quiz!

Bad Chromatogram Example

Bad Chromatogram

Good Chromatogram

Good Chromatogram

Method 1: lists conditions

If you have difficulty reading the images for Quiz #39, please click on them to enlarge or contact David Mazawa (david@pickeringlabs.com) to obtain a more user friendly PDF.

Chromatography Quiz #40 – Trivia for Pickering’s 40 Year Anniversary (multiple choice)

Check out our 40th Anniversary Timeline and complete the quiz below to win a prize. Simply email your answers and your full contact information to Rebecca at rsmith@pickeringlabs.com by April 29, 2022 in order to win. You will receive email confirmation when your submission is received, and winner congratulations will be published in the next issue (to be anonymous, please notify Rebecca in submission).

1.    When did Pickering Labs move to Space Park Way?

a.    1998
b.    1999
c.    2000
d.    2001

2.    Michael Pickering was granted a United States trademark for the name _________.

a.    Thiofluor
b.    Mycotox
c.    Trione
d.    Restore

3.    Which of the following was the first “product testing solution” produced by Pickering Labs?

a.    Saliva
b.    Lung Fluid
c.    Urine
d.    Perspiration

4.    Pickering Laboratories won the AOAC Single Laboratory Validation Method of the Year for the following method:

a.    Amino Acids
b.    Ionophores
c.    Cannabinoids
d.    Mycotoxins

5.    Michael Pickering was issued a United States Patent for the following product:

a.    Thiofluor reagent
b.    Ninhydrin reagent
c.    Restore solution
d.    Vanillin reagent

6.    Which post-column system was introduced in the year 2006 as the lower cost option similar to the PCX 5200?

a.    Vector PCX
b.    Pinnacle PCX
c.    CRX400
d.    Onyx PCX

7.    Which year did Pickering move to their current location at 1280 Space Park Way?

a.    1997
b.    1998
c.    1999
d.    2000

8.    Which year was the Onyx PCX introduced?

a.    2018
b.    2019
c.    2020
d.    2021

9.    Our Eccrine Perspiration solution was first developed by the request from ______.

a.    Crime and Punishment
b.    Crime Sciences Inc.
c.    Crime Scene Investigation
d.    True Detective

10.  Pickering has been supporting the scientific community for nearly 30 years by continuously exhibiting at the following Conference:

a.    ACS
b.    AOAC International
c.    Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop
d.    Pittcon

__________________________________________
David Mazawa

Technical Support Chemist
Pickering Laboratories, Inc.
1280 Space Park Way
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
david@pickeringlabs.com
Phone: (650) 694-6700 x710

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New PTS Website

By: David Mazawa

Pickering Test Solutions homepage

It is with great pride that we introduce our brand-new, redesigned Product Testing Solutions website: https://www.pickeringtestsolutions.com/.

Our growing presence in this analytical testing space has allowed us to reinvest in new lab space, research and development, additions to product line and now finally a new look for our website.

This redesign was a year in the making and has better functionality, a more updated look and more detailed information regarding our Artificial Body Fluid solutions.  The e-commerce capability has also seen an aesthetic upgrade.  We would like to thank David Mazawa, Saji George and the rest of the Pickering Labs team for their valuable input during this process.  Additionally, our webmaster, Jesse Farnworth and our Marketing Consultant, Phil Mowery, were integral to making this a reality.  

We hope that you like this new “landing spot” as much as we do and we would love to hear any feedback regarding the site!

Synthetic Blood

By: Saji George

Bottle of synthetic blood Product Number: 1700-0820

This synthetic blood formulation is prepared according to official methods ASTM F1819-07, ASTM F1670, ASTM F1862 and ASTM F2100. It is intended for product testing and has the surface tension and viscosity close to human blood. Additionally, the color of the solution is intended to mimic the appearance of genuine human blood. The formulation can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of materials used in protective clothing. It can also be used to evaluate absorption capacity of materials that are in contact with human skin for prolonged periods. The formulation is not suitable for medical research. It can be stored at room temperature and has a shelf life of one year.

AATCC Show

By: Kevin McKeown

AATCC booth setup

We continue to get back on the road, with Kevin McKeown (Sales Manager) and Saji George (Quality Assurance Manager) attending the AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) 2021 Exhibition held in Research Triangle Park, NC.  This was Pickering Labs first time as an exhibitor and the show was fantastic!  Not only did we learn a lot from the scholarly presentations put on by attendees, but were also honored to have our Artificial Perspiration included in the Time Capsule, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the AATCC organization!  We created a short video for the Time Capsule which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e3QjijWyWM.

Another highlight from the show was the debut of our Artificial Blood solution, which is intended to aid in the analysis of textiles for permeability and staining.  The reception of this new product was great and we look forward to attending more of these shows that focus on our PTS (Product Testing Solutions) product line of artificial body fluids!

Spoofing Emails

By: Kevin McKeown

Two dogs that look like each other

It has come to our attention that some of our Dealers have been the target of an email “spoofing” campaign.  These unknown, would-be criminals will poorly impersonate a Pickering Labs employee and may even have a pickeringlabs.com email address.  The email may ask for personal information, sales information or are even bold enough to ask for banking details.  Thankfully, our wonderful partners have sniffed out these bad actors and nothing has been compromised.  We want to stress that if you receive an email from an unknown Pickering Labs employee to please contact our Sales Manager, Kevin McKeown (kmckeown@pickeringlabs.com) to verify the veracity of any communication.  Unfortunately, it is best to be skeptical in these uncertain times and we appreciate any chance to interact.

New Employee Spotlight – Kristina Wilkinson

By: Chris Nguyen

Kristina WilkinsonOur employee family is growing!  Pickering Laboratories is happy to introduce the newest member of our team: Kristina Wilkinson!

Kristina joined us in November 2021, stepping into her new role as our Purchasing Agent.  As many of you know, this is an exciting (challenging) time to be involved in the supply chain…  So needless to say, she’s really hit the ground running. 

Outside of work, Kristina enjoys all things Disney and Star Wars.  In more normal times (and hopefully again very soon!), Kristina enjoys going to Disneyland regularly.  For those of you keeping track, that means we’ve got at least two Disney buffs on staff…  And yes, this is purely coincidence!

When I interviewed her for this article, Kristina said an ideal day for her would look like: reading a good book and drinking a cup of coffee.  She is also an avid car person.  In particular, any type of Mustang would be her dream car.  She comes to Pickering Labs from the Home Warranty Industry where she was a specialist in buying appliances.

If you have the time, please feel free to reach out to Kristina and say hello!  We would love the help in providing a warm welcome for her.  She’s taken over the purchasing@pickeringlabs.com inbox, so feel free to drop her a line! 

Welcome, Kristina!