Quiz #46 – Peaking at the wrong time

In this Glyphosate chromatogram per EPA 547 (link to method abstract), you will see Only the metabolite AMPA eluting around 15 min. What is contributing to the loss of Glyphosate?

Submit your answers to rsmith@pickeringlabs.com by May 30, 2025.

Pickering Standard: 1700-0080 Glyphosate Test Mixture, 2.5 µg/mL, 10 µL injection

Pickering Column: 1954150 Cation-exchange Column for Glyphosate analysis, 4 x 150 mm

Normal Operating Conditions: (for reference only, condition changes may be reflected in chromatogram)

Column Temperature: 55 °C

Flow rate: 0.4 mL/min

Eluent Gradient:

TIME	K200	RG019
0	100	0
15	100	0
15.1	0	100
17	0	100
17.1	100	0
27	100	0

Post-column conditions:

Reagent 1: Oxidizing reagent – 100 uL of 5% Sodium Hypochlorite in 950 mL of GA116 

Reagent 2: 100 mg of OPA, 2 g Thiofluor™ in 950 mL of GA104

Reactor 1: 36 °C, 0.5 mL

Reactor 2: ambient. 0.1 mL

Reagent flow rates: 0.3 mL/min

Detection: Fluorometer ex 330 nm, em 465 nm

Troubleshooting Chromatogram:

Reference Chromatogram:

Announcing the winners of our previous quiz, Chromatography Quiz #45 – Amino Acids Rising Baseline

Pickering Laboratories would like to congratulate the winners for our previous newsletter’s Chromatography Quiz #45: Josiah Hakala from Minnesota Department of Health, Thomas Schneider from SCWA and Narjes Ghafoori from Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory. 

Our winners will shortly be receiving: a remote-controlled drone, complete with 4k camera! 

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

Chromatography Quiz #45 Solution:

For this problem, we had to review the Onyx pump pressure trace.

We did find a loose tubing on the cap resulting in air being sucked into the pump. The air is initially pushed out at the beginning of the run. You can see the pressure coming up very slowly. Once the reagent is delivered properly, you have a good baseline.

Below you will find the pressure trace once the tubing was secured.

The method details can be found on our website (check out our amino acids brochure).

Jim’s Big-Ass Retirement Party 2025

By Rebecca Smith

Welcome sign for the big day!

When Jim Murphy, Chairman and President Emeritus, decided to hang up his hat at the end of the year, we knew there was going to be a bigtime celebration in our near future.  And come February, we didn’t need to twist any arms to have a healthy turnout of well-wishers to send him off into retirement!

David and Christopher, front and center during the staff videos and slideshow.

Each of Pickering’s employees deeply wanted to spend time sharing a memorable story and cheers with our dear Mr. Murphy, so in addition to our surprise farewell video, Jim was very busy during the party chatting with all of our guests.  When I spoke with him after it wrapped, he was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for these relationships, cultivated over the decades.

Jim with Gloria, our longest tenured employee, who has known Jim for 33 years and counting!

Jim with Severo, Anita and her husband Paul. All friends and colleagues for over two decades.

If you’ve had the opportunity to meet Jim during his 33 years at Pickering, whether you met him at Pittcon in the earlier years or have been by the lab, you’ve likely come to respect and admire him.  He is compassionate and has a great sense of humor.  Jim asks about your family, remembers details in your life, and he’ll help you put air in your tires (ask me how I know).  Jim honored our company’s rich history, but he’s committed to Pickering’s future, and as such, steadily built his succession plan for over a decade.

During his tenure, Jim evolved Pickering Labs into the thriving company it is today from the groundwork of founder Dr. Michael Pickering’s vision.  Jim started in 1991, about a decade into Michael’s greatest experiment (as he called the lab).  And as the early partnership formed, Michael created more new products and met with customers, while Jim secured the people, resources, and finances to execute and support the business’s growth.  Ten years in, this fearsome duo worked together to bring Pickering Labs into it’s forever home at 1280 Space Park, and within our walls, we further blossomed. 

Throwback to Jim and the team celebrating our first Onyx PCX ready to be shipped to the customer!

Jim and Michael in the earlier years.

What a blast! Judy Pickering was not going to miss Jim’s big party!

Throughout the years of Jim’s tenure, the Pickering team has relied on him.  He has been steadfast and true, respectful and welcoming.  He’s shepherded many an instrument through the expensive design and launch phase, tripled the revenue of the company, not to mention interviewed and hired most of our employees, past and present!  Jim has put up with our (my) quirks, he’s challenged us for our best work, and he has touched all of our hearts. 

Jim with his wife Michelle, and Rebecca with my husband, Paul. I’ll dearly miss my daily chats with my longtime mentor.

Please allow us this chance to celebrate with you and share our love for this man who has so powerfully impacted our lives.  Jim’s ensured Pickering’s future with his long-planned and thoughtful transition, and we in turn will do our part in forging ahead to our future. 

Jim, we will always be your family and you’ll forever have a second home at 1280 Space Park!  We love you and profoundly appreciate everything we have learned from you.  You are cherished.  We miss you already… and we cannot wait to see you onsite next month for the Board meeting. 😉

By Kevin McKeown

After years of dedication and hard work, it is a pleasure to introduce you to our new President: Rebecca Smith!

Rebecca has been with Pickering for over 15 years and has served in many different departments, roles and capacities during her time here.  Originally hired on as a Research Chemist assisting our company’s founder, Dr. Michael Pickering, she has been the Vice-President for the past 6 years.  Rebecca is replacing Jim Murphy, our previous President who is now fully embracing his role as retiree (I kid, Jim is now officially “Chairman and President Emeritus”)!  Jim has been grooming Rebecca for this role for years and the whole staff is super excited to have her lead us through the next era of Pickering Labs!

Most of you reading this probably know Rebecca already, but just a dime-store version of her personal story: born and raised in Fresno, undergrad degree at MIT, MBA from Northwestern, husband and 4 dogs in an RV (read in “12 days of Christmas” metre!).

When reached for comment, Jim put down his Pina Colada and said:

“Rebecca and I have spent many years together planning to make this company stronger.  She has built-up our Board of Directors, brought in outside consultants, added more structure to our organization and gave more responsibility to staff.  All of this made this the PERFECT time for me to hand over the reins to her……..plus I want to retire now!”

I have personally known Rebecca for over a decade now, first as a professional contact, then as a friend and lastly as one of her direct reports.  Over our years of doing business together, I have seen the heartfelt care that she has not only for Pickering Labs, but also the legacy of Michael Pickering.  Probably the biggest compliment I can give Rebecca is that even though she’s more than likely the smartest person in each room she enters, she never acts like it.  No matter the situation, or person, she’s always looking for something that she can learn from it.  This is the attitude that has led us to the successful company that we are today, with an ever-expanding portfolio in the PTS (Artificial Body Fluids) line of products, as well as the protection and expansion of our Post-Column business.

I encourage you to reach out to Rebecca and give her your well wishes.

Congratulations!

 

Recent Shows – Spring 2025

By Kevin McKeown

Pittcon 2025 kicked off another year of our conference circuit and we enjoyed the opportunity to meet with our customers, partners and international dealers in person!

This year Pittcon was in Boston, one of the most concentrated areas of Biotech and Life Science companies in the entire country, not to mention a huge density of colleges and universities.  We had the opportunity to chat with many students and upcoming graduates, and we want to wish them success in their job searches!

The Pickering Laboratories booth (#1249) enjoyed steady traffic and we’d like to thank everyone who stopped by!  Our all-star booth lineup of Rebecca Smith, David Mazawa and Kevin McKeown stayed busy and provided well-rounded expertise for our visitors.  Our flagship instrument, the Onyx PCX, was available to check out and continues to receive compliments for its flashiness as well as functionality.  In addition, as you might have seen from LinkedIn, we brought very special, seafood-themed giveaways and they were a huge hit.  We hoped that the lobster stress balls celebrated the New England location while reminding folks of our newest Paralytic Shellfish Toxins post-column (PCOX) analytical method and full suite of consumables! 

Later in March, Dr. Maria Ofitserova attended, exhibited and was asked to be a speaker at the AOAC Pacific Northwest exhibition… which as you can imagine kept her quite busy!

This show was hosted in Monterey, California, which is down the road from Pickering Labs and very beautiful no matter the time of year.  Maria presented a talk on Paralytic Shellfish Toxins and how our post-column instruments fit into this expanding area of food safety analysis. 

We have written in our newsletter a few times about the increased attention being given to these dangerous shellfish toxins.  With the oceans warming up, there’s been an increased awareness that algae blooms are detrimental to our food sources: mussels, scallops, clams and oysters.  Increased testing is needed, and being implemented, to ensure that consumers are protected from ingesting any contaminated shellfish.  Maria discussed our PCOX instruments and our new method-specific Mobile Phases and Reagents, formulated and manufactured by request from customers.  These ready-to-use consumables enable analysts to save valuable time. 

Mobile phase and reagents for Paralytic shellfish toxins analysis

For post-column analysis using fluorescence detector

Some species of microscopic algae produce naturally occurring toxin referred to as biotoxin. Under certain water conditions, they “bloom” and produce high concentrations of the biotoxin. Paralytic shellfish toxins are biotoxins produces by the dinoflagellates and these toxins can concentrate in shellfish. Since the ingestion of contaminated shellfish can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning, a life-threatening illness, the shellfish population should be regularly monitored for these toxins.

HPLC method that utilizes post-column oxidation of the toxins under acidic conditions has been approved as a new official AOAC method – OMA 2011.02. Three groups of toxins are separated on a C18 column using a single step-gradient method. The products of post-column derivatization of the toxins can be detected with high sensitivity using a fluorescence detector. This can be carried out very easily using any HPLC (with quaternary pump) Pickering post-column instrument (Vector PCX or Onyx PCX) and Pickering mobile phase and reagents.

PSP-001 – GTX & STX Mobile Phase A, 4 x 950 mL

PSP-002 – GTX & STX Mobile Phase B, 4 x 950 mL

PSP-003 – C-Toxins Mobile Phase A, 4 x 950 mL

PSP-004 – C-Toxins Mobile Phase B, 4x 950 mL

PSP-R1 – PSP Post-column Oxidant, 1 x 950 mL

PSP-R2 – PSP Post-column Acid, 1 x 950 mL

Imitation of gastrointestinal conditions is necessary for dissolution and pharmacokinetic studies of drug formulations. Dissolution is a routine part of Quality Control testing for most medications and dissolution methods, including required medium, are specified by Pharmacopeia monographs. The use of appropriate dissolution media during drug development stage also helps answer questions on bioavailability of the pharmaceuticals. Simulated gastric
and intestinal fluids are also used to study the safety profile of products that carry risks of unintended use like accidental ingestion.

Simulated Intestinal Fluid and Simulated Gastric Fluid test solutions are prepared according to USP specifications. We offer these products with and without enzymes to accommodate different USP testing requirements. Our 2-part formulations come with dry pre- weighted enzyme powder to be mixed in before use. This allows for longer shelf life of the product and predictable activity
of the enzyme in solution.

Stabilized Simulated Intestinal Fluid contains preservative to prevent bacterial growth and can be stored at room temperature.

Esslab – New UK/EU Product Testing Solutions Distributor!

By: Kevin McKeown

We are beyond happy to announce our appointment of a new dealer, Esslab, covering our PTS (Artificial Body Fluids) products in the UK/EU and beyond!

Esslab has over 40 years of experience in the chemicals space and is located in beautiful Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, England.  Founder, and President, Cliff Marshall has been a long-time fixture in the Certified Reference Materials world.  Personally, I have known Cliff for over 10 years and thought that his company would be a perfect fit for Pickering Lab’s range of Artificial Body Fluids.  Esslab’s mission statement closely aligns with our core values:

We’re a company with a simple, yet meaningful mission: to empower customers to achieve analytical integrity through a range of competitive products, exceptional services and trusted technical advice.

Cliff and his team have been hard at work, researching and educating their customer base on our product line.  For a taste of some of these well-written articles please see below:

https://esslabshop.com/blogs/news/artificial-perspiration-a-new-tool-in-the-fight-against-harmful-pfas-exposure

https://esslabshop.com/blogs/news/protecting-us-from-ourselves-lab-testing-to-ensure-consumer-safety

If you’re in the UK, EU or Middle East and would like more information on Artificial Body Fluids you can reach out to sales@esslab.com

Welcome Esslab!