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Elia Psillakis
Full Professor in Water Chemistry
Elia Psillakis is Full Professor in Water Chemistry at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece. Her research focus on the development and application of novel analytical procedures for detecting trace amounts of organic pollutants in a variety of environmental samples as well as studying the fate of organic micropollutants in natural and engineered environments. She is Head of the EuChemS-DAC Sample Preparation Study Group and Network and Editor-in-Chief of “Advances in Sample Preparation”, Elsevier. She was awarded a Fulbright award and used at Caltech, USA (2007) and the Silver Jubilee Medal from The Chromatographic Society (2025).
Foredrag F1 – GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY – ARE WE GETTING THERE?
Elia Psillakis
School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania-Crete, Greece
Email: epsillakis@tuc.gr
The pursuit of green and sustainable practices has become a defining challenge in modern analytical chemistry, urging scientists to rethink the way analytical workflows are designed, executed, and evaluated. This presentation examines the progress made toward sustainability, highlighting both achievements and persistent gaps. Initially, recent developments in sample preparation will be presented, including brief introduction on the Green Sample Preparation concept [1] and the AGREEprep metric [2], followed by the recent GreenSOL guide, the first green solvent selection guide for analytical chemists that integrates environmental, health, safety, and life-cycle considerations. Building on these advances, the talk will introduce the framework of Circular Analytical Chemistry [3], which seeks to decouple analytical performance from resource consumption and to foster a resource-efficient, closed-loop, and waste-free analytical sector.
Despite these encouraging steps, true sustainability in analytical chemistry remains only partially realized [4]. The talk will continue by discussing the current perception of sustainability within the field, emphasizing the gap between compliance with selected green criteria and the systemic transformations required for genuine sustainability. Sustainability will be framed around the three interdependent pillars environmental, economic, and social, challenging reductionist approaches and advocating for systems thinking to avoid merely shifting environmental or social burdens elsewhere.
Ultimately, this presentation aims to provide a critical yet constructive perspective on the state of green analytical chemistry, identifying key opportunities for improvement and outlining actionable pathways toward meaningful change. By questioning long-held assumptions and promoting informed, holistic strategies, it seeks to inspire a transformative dialogue on how analytical chemistry can truly become sustainable.
References
1 Á.I. López-Lorente, F. Pena-Pereira, S. Pedersen-Bjergaard, V.G. Zuin, S.A. Ozkan, E. Psillakis, The ten principles of green sample preparation, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 148 (2022) 116530–116530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2022.116530.
2 W. Wojnowski, M. Tobiszewski, F. Pena-Pereira, E. Psillakis, AGREEprep – Analytical greenness metric for sample preparation, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 149 (2022) 116553–116553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2022.116553.
3 E. Psillakis, F. Pena-Pereira, The twelve goals of circular analytical chemistry, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 175 (2024) 117686–117686. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.21200.
4 E. Psillakis, Towards sustainable analytical chemistry, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 191 (2025) 118371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2025.118371.
Lucie Nováková is a Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. Her research focuses on separation techniques, namely UHPLC, SFC, and their coupling to MS. She is involved in a broad scope of research projects within pharmaceutical analysis, doping control, plant analysis, and bioanalytical methods, also with focus on the sample preparation step. She authored a book on HPLC theory and practice in Czech and in English and ten book chapters and has published over 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles and review papers. She actively participates in teaching and education activities, such as HPLC and SFC training courses, seminars, and conferences.
Foredrag F11 – ADVANCING MULTI-CLASS STEROID ANALYSIS THROUGH UHPSFC-MS/MS AND UHPLC-MS/MS WORKFLOWS
Lucie Nováková, Taťána Gazárková, Hana Kočová Vlčková and Kateřina Plachká
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Email: nol@email.cz
Accurate multi-class steroid analysis remains a significant analytical challenge due to their high structural similarity, the presence of stereoisomers and positional isomers, often resulting in extensive crosstalk in MS/MS fragmentation patterns. In our study, we bring together two complementary state-of-the-art approaches, including an ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPSFC-MS/MS) method employing UniSpray ionization, and a high-throughput, derivatization-free ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-MS/MS (UHPLC-MS/MS) workflow, each designed to expand the analytical scope of targeted steroid profiling. The panel involved 38 endogenous steroids including 16 stereoisomers and 15 positional isomers.
The UHPLC-MS/MS workflow enabled quantification of the targeted steroid panel within a 20-minute method relying on minimal-sample-volume protein precipitation (PP) or supported liquid extraction (SLE). Employing two extraction approaches provided applicability across steroids with varying physicochemical properties. However, certain analytes exhibited extraction-dependent limitations (e.g., 5α-DHP4 detectable only qualitatively using protein precipitation, or the absence of DHEA-S in SLE extracts). A novel surrogate-matrix background-subtraction approach using adrenalectomized rat plasma addressed the lack of a steroid-free calibration matrix, improving the accuracy of steroid quantification across more than 500 rodent plasma samples. Achieved LLOQs ranged between 0.1 and 30 ng/mL, depending on analyte and extraction mode.
The UHPSFC-MS/MS method provided baseline separation of all critical pairs within 14 minutes using a Torus 1-AA column. Compared with electrospray ionization, UniSpray improved MS response by 5–12.3-fold for both 3-keto-4-ene and poorly ionizing 3-hydroxy steroids, while simultaneously reducing matrix effects in human plasma, particularly at low concentration levels. Validation according to ICH/EMA M10 guidelines confirmed excellent accuracy and precision of the method, with LLOQs ranging from 0.1 to 5 ng/mL for most analytes. These findings underscore the strength of UHPSFC as an orthogonal separation technique capable of resolving structurally complex steroid panels in shorter analysis times than UHPLC, while also enhancing analytical sensitivity.
Taken together, the two workflows demonstrate complementary analytical approaches. UHPSFC-MS/MS, particularly when combined with UniSpray, provided improved separation selectivity for isomeric steroids and closely related structures, and enhanced MS sensitivity across steroid groups. Integrating insights from both methods broadens the analytical window for high-confidence steroid profiling across biomedical, toxicological, and translational research applications.
References
1 T. Gazárková et al., Anal. Chim. Acta 1332 (2024) 343362.
2 T. Gazárková et al., Anal. Chim. Acta 1383 (2026) 344903.
Lucie Nováková
Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry
Andrea Gargano
Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry
Andrea Gargano is an Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In his research, he focuses on LC-MS technology development for macromolecule characterization. Examples are hyphenated separation approaches for intact protein analysis, impurity profiling of oligonucleotides, and novel enzymatic systems for synthetic polymer characterization.
His significant contributions have been recognized with the Ernst-Bayer Award (2014), the Csaba Horváth Young-Scientist Award (2015), a prestigious NWO-VENI research fellowship, alongside numerous national and international grants. The Analytical Scientist magazine has twice celebrated him among their ‘Fab Forty’ (2018, 2022) for his transformative impact on analytical science.
Foredrag F3 – BEYOND ONE DIMENSION: HOW 2DLC-HRMS ALLOWS IN-DEPTH CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL AND SYNTHETIC MACROMOLECULES
Luca Tutis, Annika van der Zon, Thomas Holmark, Ziran Zhai, Gino Groeneveld, Masashi Serizawa, Andrea
Gargano
a Centre for Analytical Science Amsterdam, van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Science, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Email: a.gargano@uva.nl
Polymers (e.g., synthetic and biological macromolecules) are key players in numerous technological applications, such as therapeutics or materials for advanced applications, yet their characterization remains a complex analytical challenge. Their high molecular weight and multiple chemical distributions lead to convoluted one-dimensional separations and strong co-elution, which promotes ESI-MS ionization suppression and limits the extracted information depth. Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography (2DLC) methods can increase the amount of information extracted in polymer analysis. These methods utilize orthogonal separation selectivities, which are coupled together in various ways depending on the scope of the investigation, ranging from heart-cut to comprehensive 2DLC.
My presentation will focus on our recent advancements applying these approaches to challenging polymer systems: therapeutics (Oligonucleotides, ON and Monoclonal Antibodies, mAbs) and material analysis (Polyesters). I will present a novel heart-cut 2DLC approach for impurity profiling of ON therapeutics. This method enables simultaneous recording of 1DLC-UV&MS (ion-pair RPLC) and targeted fraction collection for subsequent 2DLC-UV&MS (ion-pair HILIC) analysis. The advantage of this method is that it allows for LC-UV impurity quantification, reducing biases often observed in 1DLC-MS alone. In addition, I will present results from the analysis of mAbs variants combining ion-exchange and nanoflow HILIC-MS.
In the final part of the talk, I will discuss the use of comprehensive 2DLC-MS coupling normal-Phase LC and Size-Exclusion Chromatography with parallel UV and MS detection for the analysis of polyester materials. This method allows for simultaneous characterization according to end-group functionality (NPLC) and molecular weight distribution (SEC), with HRMS detailing the chemical composition of polyester samples for industrial research and development.
Figure : Example of a 2DLC-MS separation for polyester analysis
References
1. Tutiš, L. et al. Ion-Pairing Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography for Impurity Profiling of Therapeutic Phosphorothioated Oligonucleotides. Anal Chem 97, 15717–15726 (2025).
2.van der Zon, A. A. M. et al. Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography HRMS with Acrylamide Monolithic Columns: A Novel Approach for Intact Antibody Glycoform Characterization. Anal Chem 97, 13569–13576 (2025).
3.Groeneveld, G. et al. Development of a comprehensive normal-phase liquid chromatography × size-exclusion chromatography platform with ultraviolet spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry detection for the chemical characterization of complex polyesters. Anal Chim Acta 1324, 343086 (2024).
Ken Broeckhoven has a Master’s degree and PhD in chemical engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, where he currently is an associate professor in chemical engineering and bio-engineering sciences. He is also the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the VUB. His research mainly focuses on the fundamental aspects of chromatographic separation methods (diffusion, mass transfer, eddy-dispersion, extra-column band broadening, kinetic performance), in both liquid and supercritical fluid chromatography. In 2019, he received the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award. He is a part of the organizing and scientific committee of the HTC-conference series, a biennial conference in Belgium that focusses on hyphenated techniques in chromatography.
Foredrag F19 – GOING GREEN IN HPLC – ARE TEMPERATURE RESPONSIVE LC COLUMNS AN ALTERNATIVE?
Ken Broeckhoven (a), Adriaan Ampe (b) and Frederic Lynen (b)
a Department of Chemical Engineering (CHIS), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussel, Belgium
b Separation Science Group, Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Belgium
Email: ken.broeckhoven@vub.be
The early applications of HPLC with polar stationary phases primarily relied on volatile, flammable, and environmentally hazardous solvents such as hexane (Normal-Phase LC). The introduction of Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatography (RPLC), using a nonpolar stationary phase (e.g. C18-modified silica) and a mobile phase consisting mainly of water and less harmful organic solvents such as methanol or acetonitrile, provided a clear environmental advantage over NPLC. Nevertheless, HPLC still has its environmental challenges, with an annual global solvent consumption of approximately 150,000 metric tons.1 Strategies to minimize this environmental impact involve the use of narrow-bore or capillary column formats and replacing the co-solvent by “greener” solvents such ethanol and DMC, although high viscosity, UV cut-off and miscibility limit their application. An important reason to use of organic co-solvents is their ability to tune retention with small changes in mobile phase composition and allow for easy gradient elution. Equivalent tuning of retention could be achieved by changing temperature. However, its effect is too small to eliminate to need for organic modifiers and it is therefore mainly used to tune selectivity. Alternatively, instead of changing the eluotropic strength of the mobile phase, the stationary phase itself could be designed to change its retentive properties with changing temperature. This has led to the development of temperature responsive liquid chromatography (TRLC) as a green HPLC mode that uses only water as mobile phase. TRLC is beneficial compared to other temperature based LC-approaches as larger changes in retention and selectivity can be obtained over moderate temperature variations (e.g. between 5 and 55°C). This circumvents the drawbacks observed with high temperature HPLC in terms of analyte and stationary phase stability.
TRLC incorporates temperature-responsive polymers, which reversibly vary in solubility and polarity with temperature, onto the stationary phase. This allows for retention to be controlled solely through changes in temperature, removing the need for organic modifiers. At low temperatures, little to no retention is observed, as the polymers are fully water-soluble and exhibit a hydrophilic surface. Upon increase of the temperature above the cloud point, the polymer precipitates, creating a hydrophobic and strongly retaining stationary phase. TRLC columns thus demonstrate a high similarity to C8 or C18 based reversed-phase stationary phases2 and negative temperature gradients can be applied to perform analysis under purely aqueous conditions, making it less expensive and more environmentally friendly. However, despite its potential, several critical limitations need to be addressed before it can be used as a robust alternative for RPLC in routine use. Whereas the use of temperature gradients in GC is commonplace, this is more cumbersome in LC due to the much larger column formats and quick temperature control, especially the required cooling, is often lacking in LC instrumentation. In addition, excessive retention for more hydrophobic compounds or sample solubility limitations might require the use of small amounts of co-solvent, without jeopardizing the TR behaviour of the polymers. For routine use and to become competitive with modern HPLC columns, advancements in column efficiency and stability are required. Prolonged operation at elevated temperatures was observed to lead to hydrolytic degeneration of the silica-based chromatographic supports, instigating the research in alternative stationary phase support materials and TR polymers. Since column packing is a key factor to obtain highly efficient columns, novel methodologies for stationary phase grafting have been investigated, such as the use of flow through modification. Finally, optimal instrument hardware and thermal gradient programming has been investigated from a fundamental point of view using computational fluid dynamics.
References
1 R. Gray, et al., Green Chemistry 24 (2022) 4504–4515. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1GC03749H.
2 I. Tan et al., Analytical Methods 4 (2012) 34–43. https://doi.org/10.1039/c1ay05356f.
Ken Broeckhoven
Associate professor in chemical engineering and bio-engineering sciences
Alastair Lewis
Professor of atmospheric chemistry
Alastair Lewis is professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of York, UK. He is an experimental scientist who has studied the composition of the atmosphere from polar regions to megacities, open oceans to tropical forests. He has received the Royal Society of Chemistry Silver Medal for analytical science, John Jeyes award for environment, energy and sustainability and the biannual prize for science policy. He is Chair of the Air Quality Expert Group and the Department for Transport Science Advisory Council and a member of the Environmental Sustainability Panel of the Civil Aviation Authority. He has been a contributor to >300 scientific publications on topics spanning analytical chemistry, air pollution science, and public health impacts.
Foredrag F29 – ONE-MINUTE GC SEPARATIONS THAT ARE USEFUL IN THE REAL-WORLD
ONE-MINUTE GC SEPARATIONS THAT ARE USEFUL IN THE REAL-WORLD
Alastair C Lewis (a), Tara Murphy (b), Killian Murphy, Fadi Ahwal, Stuart Lacy, Marvin Shaw and Stephen Andrews 3 (a)
a Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
Email: ally.lewis@york.ac.uk
Fast gas chromatography separations have been reported in literature for more than 60 years, yet still the vast majority of GC and GC-MS analyses take between 15 mins and an hour to complete. It has proven difficult to take the theoretical possibilities of fast separations into real-world settings. Achieving fast GC is largely limited by two key parameters: i) the thermal cycling time, including both heating the column up and cooling it down, and ii) the sample capacity, which is often limited when narrow bore columns are used. In older publications fast column cooling has often enabled using liquid cryogens but this approach to cooling is not practical in modern laboratories, or for field instruments. Fast GC is often exemplified in literature using high split ratio injection which supports narrow injection band-widths. High splits are however rarely practical for real-world trace analysis where split-less injection is ideally needed to maximise sensitivity.
A fast GC system with coupled thermal desorption (TD) system has been developed using a 5m L. 150 mm i.d. resistively heated aluminium/nichrome/kapton laminated fused silica column. Column cooling was achieved using a combination of a Stirling cooler, cold air stratification and centrifugal fan within an insulated air tight chamber. The end application is to create a TD-GC-MS system capable of making fast measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in real-time and in-flight from a research aircraft. The limited sample capacity of the narrow bore column is overcome using a ultra-low dead volume two-stage thermal desorption trap with in-built water removal stage, all cooled using Stirling cooler. The GC column could be controlled accurately at temperatures between -40 C and 250 C with a maximum heating rate of 200 C min-1 and cooling rate of 400 C min-1. The GC was coupled to a TOFwerks Time of flight mass spectrometer with EI ionisation capturing spectra at 100 Hz. More than 100 individual VOCs could be quantified in ambient air samples in less than 60 seconds and with detection limits of around 1 part per trillion. The combined TD-GC-TOFMS system has been used in the field to measure fast changes in ambient isoprene linking emissions to rapid changes in weather. It has also been used to quantify in situ changes in VOCs in the cooled exhaust gases from an aircraft turbine, detecting differences in emissions for Jet A-1 and sustainable aviation fuel as the engine cycled rapidly through different power settings.
Figure: Separation of volatile organic compounds in ambient air at part per billion and part per trillion mixing ratios using fast TD-GC-TOFMS. Selected diagnostic ions shown for a range of VOC functional group types. Full separation was completed in less than 60 seconds and with the column and thermal desorption traps returned to their ready state 60 seconds later.
Elisabeth Rødland finished her PhD in 2022 and is now a researcher in the Urban Environment and Infrastructure section at NIVA (Norwegian Institute for Water Research). She has been working with road pollution since 2012, first as an environmental coordinator at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and, since 2018, as a researcher at NIVA. During her PhD she focused on the analysis of tire wear particles using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (PYR-GC/MS). Today,
Elisabeth primarily works on pollution from roads and urban areas, particularly related to tire wear particles and chemicals associated with tires. She develops methods to quantify tire wear particles in various environments and investigates treatment solutions for runoff from roads and tunnels.
Foredrag F2 – ANALYSIS OF TIRE WEAR PARTICLES USING PYROLYSIS GC/MS
Elisabeth Støhle Rødland (a), Cassie Rauert (b)
a Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Økernveien 94, 0579 Oslo, Norway,
b Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, 20 Cornwall
Street, Woolloongabba, 4102 QLD, Australia
Email: elisabeth.rodland@niva.no
Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) are a major source of microplastic pollution, yet their quantification in environmental samples remains challenging due to complex composition and size variability. Pyrolysis-GC/MS (pyr-GC/MS) is widely used for mass-based quantification of tire wear particles (TWP), targeting rubbers such as styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). butadiene rubber (BR) and natural rubber (NR)1. The analytical methods developed at NIVA2, applies optimized pyrolysis conditions to break vulcanized networks and generate characteristic markers, and focuses on the use of multiple markers for styrene and butadiene rubber and the use of realistic reference tires from local environments for converting measured SBR+BR concentrations to tire wear particle concentrations using a Monte Carlo prediction model.
Current research, carried out in collaboration with The University of Queensland, Australia, focuses on refining the pyr-GC/MS methods for TWP quantification across various environmental matrices. We compare conventional markers such as 4-vinylcyclohexene (4-VCH), styrene-butadiene dimer (SB/4-PCH), and styrene-butadiene trimer (SBB), as recommended in ISO standards3 and used by different research groups4, 5, with our multi-marker approach (M4: benzene, α-methylstyrene, ethylstyrene, butadiene trimer) and new potential markers for SBR and BR rubber in tires. Our previous research2,6 shows high variability when using single markers across tire types, while M4 reduces variability by targeting multiple components of SBR and BR. We are now investigating how rubber microstructure (styrene content, branching), vulcanization and other variations in both elastomers and tire tread influences pyrolysis profiles and marker reliability, using controlled pyrolysis experiments.
This presentation will highlight methodological advances, marker performance comparisons, and implications for robust TWP quantification across diverse environmental matrices.
References:
Rødland et al., 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2023.117121
Rødland et al., 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127092
ISO standard 2017. ISO/TS 21396:2017
de Oliveira et al., 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133301
Miller et al. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00032719.2021.1979994
Rauert et al. 2021. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00949?ref=pdf
Elisabeth Rødland
Researcher; PHD
Erik Hallin
PHD
Erik Hallin finished his PhD in biochemistry at Lund University (Sweden) in 2016, elucidating the
function and structural properties of proteins involved in the light protection mechanisms in plants.
He then continued with a post-doc at the University in Bergen (Norway), working with
characterization of brain proteins involved in the formation of long-term memory. He is currently
employed at Haukeland University Hospital, developing LCMS based methods for quantification of
therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (t-mAb). These t-mAb are used for treatment for cancer,
autoimmune diseases and more. The goal of this research is to introduce LCMS-based t-mAb
quantification to hospitals and thereby allow improved personalized medication.
Foredrag F4 – LC-MS AS A HIGH-THROUGHPUT ALTERNATIVE TO LIGAND BINDING ASSAYS FOR MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES
Erik Hallin
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
Email: erik.hallin@helse-bergen.no
Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (t-mAbs) are molecules designed to interact with specific targets in patients. These drugs are widely used to treat various conditions, including cancer, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. The number of t-mAbs used in patient treatments is rising rapidly, while standardized quantification methods lag behind.
For accurate dosing, it is essential to determine the actual drug concentration in each patient over time. Due to significant variability in drug metabolism between individuals, drug levels must be measured for each patient. The two main approaches for quantification are ligand-binding assays—such as ELISA, available as commercial kits—and LC-MS-based methods.
Ligand-binding assays require the development of specific reporter antibodies tailored to each t-mAb. Cross-reactivity is a common issue, leading to inaccurate quantification and variability between kits. Moreover, commercial kits are often unavailable for newer t-mAbs entering the market. LC-MS-based methods are commonly used in research but are rarely adopted for routine clinical quantification, primarily due to high costs and complex sample preparation, which are difficult to automate for high-throughput workflows. Typical sample preparation methods involve precipitation steps with delicate pellet handling or multi-step affinity chromatography.
We developed a cost-efficient, robust, and high-throughput method1 using a lesser-known protein precipitation technique with caprylic acid, combined with optimized internal standards and simplified protocols. This method quantifies 11 t-mAbs in parallel in human serum and has been validated according to ICH guidelines for bioanalytical method validation.
Figure: Overview of different sample preparation alternatives for LC-MS based quantification of therapeutical monoclonal antibodies.
References
1 Hallin, E. I., Serkland, T. T., Bjånes, T. K., Skrede, S. (2024). High-throughput quantification of therapeutic antibodies via caprylic acid precipitation and LC-MS/MS. Analytica Chimica Acta, 1313, 342789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2024.342789
Anna Nordborg is a researcher and group leader at the research institute SINTEF in Trondheim. She has a background in Analytical chemistry with a PhD from Umeå University, Sweden, in which the focus was chromatographic separations and design of novel monolithic separation materials for
HPLC. After her PhD she has worked as a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Research on
Separation Science (ACROSS) in Tasmania, Australia, and the University of Southern Denmark, before
joining SINTEF in 2013. Her research interest includes high throughput and high-resolution LC-MS,
multi-omics analysis (metabolomics, lipidomics, proteomics) applied in health and process
development, and analysis and problem-solving supporting (bio)pharmaceutical development and
characterization.
Foredrag F12 – BIOMARKERS IN ANIMAL HEALTH AND FERTILITY
Anna Nordborg
Department of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, SINTEF Industry, Trondheim, Norway
Email: Anna.Nordborg@sintef.no
Biomarkers are advancing animal health and are increasingly used in livestock and companion animals. Biomarkers enable disease detection, prognosis, and monitoring of treatment efficacy, and provide the basis for interpretation of biological processes throughout animal development, as tools in robustness evaluation, and in fertility. Biomarker discovery in animals aims to identify measurable indicators of biological processes, disease, and traits by analyzing small molecules in biological samples such as blood, urine, or tissue.
The analytical instrumentation platform at SINTEF Industri in Trondheim includes instrumentation for LC-MS/MS, high resolution MS, GC-MS/MS, GC-FID, and ICP-MS, covering most aspects of organic and inorganic analysis. Using mass spectrometry (MS) in combination with liquid chromatography, we have developed methods for metabolomics and lipidomics analysis covering both targeted methods and non-targeted high- and ultrahigh resolution MS. We have also developed sample preparation approaches for complex biological samples, and utilised the combined method sets in biomarker discovery related to fertility, development and animal robustness. The talk will describe some of our approaches, and showcase the importance of and need for optimisation of sample preparation and chromatographic conditions in the analysis and discovery of biomarkers. Examples will be included projects related to animal health and fertility in important Norwegian production animals such as salmon, pig, and cattle.
Anna Nordborg
Group leader; PHD
Katja B. P. Elgstøen
PhD
Katja B. P. Elgstøen finished her PhD in 2010 in medicinal chemistry at the University of Oslo. She has worked on the development of diagnostic methods, particularly LC-MS-based methods, throughout her career, with a special focus on clinical applicability. She has led the development of global/untargeted metabolomics at Oslo University Hospital since 2013 and currently heads the
Section for Metabolomics and Lipidomics, as well as the University of Oslo Core Facility for Global Metabolomics and Lipidomics. She is also head of development for the Natioanl laboratory for advanced laboratory diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism.
Foredrag F20 – FROM GLOBAL PROFILES TO PRECISE DIAGNOSIS: UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF CLINICAL METABOLOMICS AND LIPIDOMICS
Katja Benedikte Prestø Elgstøen (a), Aleš Kvasnička (a), Hanne Bendiksen Skogvold (a), Elise Sandås Sand
(a), Barbora Piskláková (a), Sander Johannes Thorbjørnsen Guttorm (a) and Helge Rootwelt (a)
a Section for Metabolomics and Lipidomics, Department of Medical Biochemistry,
Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Email: kelgstoe@ous-hf.no
Metabolomics is rapidly advancing as a powerful tool across multidisciplinary biomedical research, with a growing impact in clinical practice. Clinical metabolomics aims to translate the analysis of thousands of known and unknown molecular features into actionable insights, helping to elucidate disease mechanisms and support patient diagnosis, prognosis, treatment decisions, and monitoring. This lecture will provide an overview of current clinical applications of metabolomics1 and lipidomics2 and selected case reports from the Section for Metabolomics and Lipidomics at Oslo University Hospital. It will highlight the essential role of high-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry, supported by an extensive in-house library of reference standards and advanced computational tools for metabolite identification. The presentation will showcase the practical benefits of global metabolomic approaches, including detection of patient non-adherence and discovery of novel biomarkers, as well as emerging frontiers such as organoid analysis and microsampling. Finally, it will address the pressing challenges of harmonization and standardization, outlining the frameworks needed for global metabolomics and lipidomics to become integral to routine clinical diagnostics.
Figure: Illustration of the omics cascade – highlighting the dynamic aspect of the metabolome and its correlation with phenotype.
References
1 Skogvold, H. B., Sand, E. S., & Elgstøen, K. B. P. (2025). Global Metabolomics Using LC-MS for Clinical Applications. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2855, 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-4116-3_2
2 Guttorm, S. J. T., Wilson, S. R. H., Amundsen, E. K., Rootwelt, H., & Elgstøen, K. B. P. (2025). Scheduled data-dependent acquisition MS provides enhanced identification and sensitivity in clinical lipidomics. Analytica chimica acta, 1371, 344426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2025.344426