Waters Adds Key Extensions to UPLC Product Portfolio

Responding to demand from laboratories seeking answers to productivity and performance challenges, Waters Corporation announced today new additions to its growing line of products for UltraPerformance LC^® (UPLC^®). The product extensions – including new instruments, chemistries, and features – are being shown for the first time at the 59th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, March 2 – 6, 2008.

New Applications-Specific, UPLC-Based LC-MS Systems

The new Waters PATROL UPLC Process Analyzer is a real-time online process analytical technology (PAT) system able to detect and quantify complex multiple component manufacturing samples and final product on the production floor.

Designed with the same enabling technology platform as Waters ACQUITY™ UltraPerformance LC™ (UPLC) System, the PATROL UPLC Process Analyzer moves existing liquid chromatography (LC) analysis from off-line quality control (QC) laboratories directly to the manufacturing stream resulting in significant improvements in production efficiency with real-time analysis, reducing both process cycle times and assuring product quality.

The Waters MassTrak™ Amino Acid Analysis (AAA) Solution is the first system to combine Waters ACQUITY UPLC technology with Waters patented AccQTag™ derivatization chemistry for performing amino acid analysis on urine and plasma samples in a research setting.

To address the challenges food testing laboratories face meeting increasingly stringent food safety regulatory standards, the Waters UPLC Food Safety System is an end-to-end solution for analyzing veterinary drug residues, pesticides, mycotoxins, marine biotoxins and illegal dyes in a variety of foods. The system combines a Waters ACQUITY UPLC System and a Quattro Premier™ XE mass spectrometer for the sensitive and selective determination of contaminants at very low concentrations.

New UPLC Column Chemistries

At Pittcon 2008, Waters portfolio of UPLC columns continues to grow with the introduction of two new C18 bonded phases for the 1.8 µm High Strength Silica (HSS) UPLC particle.

ACQUITY UPLC HSS C18 columns combine a high coverage, fully endcapped C18 bonded phase with the rugged and efficient HSS particle to produce UPLC columns that provide superior peak shapes, higher retentivity, long column lifetime under acidic conditions, and excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. This column is available immediately worldwide.

ACQUITY UPLC HSS C18 Selectivity for Bases (SB) columns is the third bonded phase developed for the 1.8 µm High Strength Silica (HSS) particle and the eighth commercially available UPLC column chemistry developed. The ACQUITY UPLC HSS C18 SB column chemistry is designed and optimized specifically to be “different” in terms of selectivity for the analysis of basic compounds under low pH conditions. ACQUITY UPLC HSS C18 SB columns combine an unendcapped, intermediate ligand density C18 bonded phase with the rugged and efficient HSS particle to produce UPLC columns that provide alternate selectivities for basic compounds under low pH conditions.

VanGuard™ Pre-Columns Chemistries Extensions

At Pittcon 2007, Waters released VanGuard Pre-Columns which was the first commercially available guard column device designed to protect and prolong UPLC column lifetimes. At Pittcon 2008, Waters announces the availability of additional UPLC column chemistries available for the VanGuard Pre-Column format. Immediately available UPLC chemistries joining the currently available ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 chemistry include BEH Shield RP18; HSS T3 and HSS C18. The remaining ACQUITY UPLC chemistries, BEH C8, BEH Phenyl, BEH HILIC and HSS C18 SB will be released and available by mid-2008.

New Scientific Presentations on UPLC Technology

Waters scientists will be presenting the results of their work throughout the week with posters and oral presentations describing new applications for UPLC technology.

• Perfluorinated compounds
• Melamine and related compounds in pet food
• Peptide mapping for characterizing native protein structure and structural variants
• Bound and free amino acids in foods and feeds
• Support of cleaning validation studies
• Increasing the throughput of intact antibody characterization
• Microbore and capillary scale bioassays
• Water-soluble vitamin and amino acid analysis in cell culture media
• Physiological amino acids
• Drug-drug interaction
• Physico-chemical property profiling in drug discovery
• Structural elucidation of an unknown impurity present in a simvastatin impurity profile
• The rapid screening and identification of ginseng natural products

Number of Peer-Reviewed UPLC-Based Scientific Journal Articles Surpasses 200 Mark

Marking another milestone in the rapid adoption of UPLC technology by the world’s leading laboratories, the number of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles authored by practitioners of UPLC recently surpassed 200 for the first time. Since its launch at Pittcon 2004, Waters UPLC technology has transformed separations science in the laboratory.