ESA invites you to Invites you to Analytica, Stand A2: 450

ESA Biosciences Inc. are featuring a number of exciting products at Analytica 2006.

1. Powerful tool for Pharmaceutical scientists

The DiscovArray® Multi-Functional Electrochemical (EC) System from ESA BioSciences Inc. has been designed specifically to maximise the impact of EC technology for the pharmaceutical researcher.

The DiscovArray® was developed to provide the optimal platform to study the important chemical and pharmacological properties of potential drug candidates. Offering the full specificity and sensitivity benefits of EC detection the DiscovArray® easily integrates with both isocratic and gradient HPLC or LC/MS systems to provide a unique platform capable of performing all redox applications in a single configuration.

For many years, EC systems merely measured the flow of electrons generated from a reaction to measure a given analyte. Recently however researchers have begun to understand and exploit the ability of EC technology to perform Oxidation / Reduction reactions to mimic and study many important biological processes. It is well known that many key biological and pharmacological properties of compounds have their basis in redox chemistry.

Bringing together a powerful combination of proven technology, important application developments, and optimised performance the DiscovArray® enables researchers with a single system to use redox chemistry to better understand the biology of drug metabolism, metabolic profiling, compound stability, synthesis and toxicology studies. With the DiscovArray®, scientists can quickly switch between applications with minimal time and effort. Utilising standard data management tools the system is easy to operate and control.

2. Advanced clinical analysis at femtogram levels

Available from ESA, a leading supplier of advanced separations, detection and analysis systems, the Coulochem III electrochemical detector system offers leading-edge sensitivity and selectivity at an affordable price for clinical laboratories. Electrochemical detection is the acknowledged standard for highly sensitive and selective detection in HPLC. To readily quantify picogram to femtogram levels of oxidisable or reducible neurochemical, clinical, pharmaceutical, environmental, and biological compounds in a sample, the Coulochem III is the HPLC detector of choice.

In combination with ESA's patented coulometric electrodes, the Coulochem III detector is the only detector to offer redox capability in a single cell. Thus the Coulochem III detector represents a significant advance in highly selective and sensitive chromatographic detection. Conventional EC techniques such as amperometry, screen, pulse and scan mode are also available. Unlike other HPLC-EC detectors, the Coulochem III incorporates DC and pulse/scan modes in discrete modules for maximum performance. Expanded gain ranges make it ready for any cell type. Advanced electronics give enhanced stability and the lowest limits of detection possible.

A selection of comments from Coulochem users can be seen by visiting
www.esainc.com/products/HPLC/EC_Detectors/esa_coulochem_users.htm

3. Electrochemical Array detection advances Metabolomics

Available from ESA is a new technical paper discussing how coulometric electrochemical (EC) array detection is providing major bioanalytical advances in the fields of metabolomics and metabolic profiling.

The paper details how the use of redox metabolic profiling, using liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection alone or in conjunction with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or LC-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has proven to be a valuable method for identifying marker compounds of disease and for studying the effects of drugs in biological systems.

Using a series of examples the paper demonstrates how ESA's CoulArray™ EC array detection technology can provide effective yet easy-to-use analysis and interpret information about important diseases such as ALS, cerebral palsy, autism and diabetes. CoulArray™ technology is unique in that it uses a series of highly efficient coulometric electrochemical cells to specifically monitor metabolically active small molecule cellular components. The specificity of the technology can be used to greatly simplify the inherent complexity of metabolomics samples by filtering out mundane cellular components and focusing on disease markers. The unique design and properties of the CoulArray™ also facilitate easy data analysis of these types of often highly complex samples. In addition, the CoulArray™ offers the advantage of being able to distinguish minute changes in metabolomics patterns and components.

The powerful and novel compound detection capabilities of the technology coupled with easy integration into bioanalytical systems and high throughput capacity makes the use of EC array detection a very efficient method for performing metabolomics and other important metabolic studies.