Mar 9 2009
Against a backdrop of a worldwide economic recession, Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) is demonstrating how its industry-leading analytical instruments and informatics products address today's greatest scientific and business challenges at the 60th Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon) on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, March 8 - 13, 2009.
"Pittcon 2009 promises to be like no other in its past simply because today, the stakes are higher," said Dr. Rohit Khanna, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Waters Division. "In no uncertain terms, our customers are telling us they need to achieve more: more productivity, more efficiency, and more speed in all of their efforts. ACQUITY UPLC and Xevo MS systems, combined with Waters informatics and consumable chemistries, are responding to the full range of current laboratory challenges through unrivalled performance and proven reliability to truly redefine the analytical process."
Waters' headline offerings at Pittcon 2009 include the Xevo(TM) family of mass spectrometers, the Xevo TQ and Xevo QTof MS Systems, and an expanded suite of products for UltraPerformance LC(R) (UPLC(R)) aimed at bringing laboratories new levels of efficiencies. Additionally, Waters shares the spotlight with its latest technology addition, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), by featuring products from TharSFC at the exhibition.
Xevo Family of Mass Spectrometers - Bringing the Power of Advanced MS to More Scientists
With Xevo benchtop mass spectrometers, Waters is making advanced-performance MS more accessible than ever -- regardless of who uses the instrument. Xevo mass spectrometers are designed around the philosophy of Engineered Simplicity(TM) which combines outstanding instrument performance with simplicity enabled by IntelliStart(TM) technology to allow scientists to convert data into business-critical knowledge faster and with greater assurance.
New to Pittcon this year, Waters(R) Xevo quadrupole time-of-flight (QTof) mass spectrometer (MS) is an exact mass MS/MS benchtop instrument that is the most sensitive benchtop QTof system ever developed. Paired with Waters ACQUITY(R) UPLC system, the Xevo QTof MS is the only commercially-available MS system to give scientists one-of-a-kind UPLC/MS(E) performance - a novel method of data acquisition that captures "all of the data all of the time" at unparalleled speeds to maximize the amount of information collected from minimal sample amounts.
Also new to Pittcon is the Waters Xevo TQ MS System, an advanced tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer that tackles the most demanding quantification applications for target compounds at low concentrations in highly complex and diverse samples. Waters Xevo TQ MS System is uniquely qualified to allow laboratories to conform to the new US Food and Drug Administration's guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. The intent of the guidance is to prevent errors due to matrix effects made during the toxicological assessment of a target compound or its metabolites; errors than can have life-threatening consequences during clinical trials.
With the Xevo family of mass spectrometers, Waters is combining advanced performance with ease-of-use to answer the need for laboratories to get more out of their investment in analytical technology.
"According to our customers, the effects of the world's economic, resource and globalization challenges are felt in the laboratories as much as any other part of an organization's mission-critical operations," said Brian Smith, Vice President of Mass Spectrometry Operations for the Waters Division. "These challenges put even greater burdens on labs to answer complex questions faster with greater confidence using fewer resources than ever before. Consequently, today's laboratory technology should be measured on its ability to improve lab productivity and decision-making if our customers are to be successful."
UPLC Technology - Changing the Analytical Laboratory Since 2004
Five years ago at Pittcon 2004, Waters sparked a wave of innovation in analytical chemistry when it introduced its ACQUITY UPLC System, an entirely new category of liquid chromatograph based on novel, patented sub two-micron chromatography particles that has transformed the analytical laboratory in many ways.
"The introduction of the Waters ACQUITY UPLC system in 2004 was more than an innovative product introduction, it spurred a revolution in high performance liquid chromatography," remarks Larry Schmid, President, Strategic Directions International, Los Angeles, California, consultants and advisors to the analytical instrument industry and publishers of Instrument Business Outlook newsletter. "ACQUITY UPLC inspired most other major HPLC suppliers to develop similar systems that have changed the dynamics of liquid separation in the lab, especially in relation to mass spectrometry sample introduction. The ACQUITY UPLC and other so-called "fast LCs" provide greatly improved resolution and faster analysis, something laboratory scientists desperately needed. So five years on, the HPLC marketplace is now fundamentally different thanks to Waters' groundbreaking product development effort."
Since its introduction, Waters has installed thousands of UPLC systems, and the thousands of laboratories that have replaced HPLC with UPLC and as an inlet to mass spectrometers are enjoying the benefits.
"The speed that we're getting is incredible and in our business, speed is money. We're a production lab so we don't have time to wait around or run samples overnight and pick up the results in the morning. Now I can run ACQUITY in one shift, get my results, and release the product--all in one day. This is a huge gain in productivity for us," says Steve Lunetta, Manager, Quality Control Laboratory, PharmaVite LLC, San Fernando, California, the makers of Nature Made(R) brand vitamins and nutritional supplements.