ZipChips and LIGHTNIRS
Two innovations that stood out from the crowd at Pittcon 2016
The Pittcon Editor’s Award was sadly absent in Atlanta, but that doesn’t mean that exciting technology wasn’t forthcoming – quite the opposite. Two products caught the collective eye of The Analytical Scientist team – and they couldn’t be more different.
LIGHTNIRS
What? Functional near-infrared spectroscopy system (fNIRS)
Why? Enables flexible and portable brain imaging research. The wearable array of fNIRS sensors (powered by a backpack battery) allows researchers to delve into brain activity – through blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals from the cerebral cortex – in real time. LIGHTNIRS takes brain research out of its traditional setting and even allows up to four headsets to be connected together for multi-brain imaging. The future? Clearly, controlling robots with our minds...
Who? Shimadzu
ZipChip
What? Capillary electrophoresis (CE) and electrospray ionization integrated on a glass microfluidic chip.
Why? Efficiently separates complex biological samples in three minutes or less before direct electrospray injection into a standard mass spectrometer for analysis. Typically, a single simple method covers a wide range of analytes – from small molecules to intact proteins and anti-body drug conjugates – and works in diverse matrices, such as growth media, cell lysates, blood, and urine, at very low sample sizes (in the nanoliter range). And let’s not forget “one step prep” – most samples require only electrolyte dilution; de-salting occurs on chip.
Who? 908 Devices (908devices.com/products/zipchip)
