Themed collection Emerging Investigators

Welcome to this Analytical Methods themed issue on emerging investigators. Lane Baker and Ryan Bailey discuss the work showcased.

Analytical Methods profiles the emerging investigators featuring work in this themed issue.

This perspective presents challenges, benefits, and recent advances from research at primarily undergraduate institutions.

This mini-review discusses recent advances in electrochemical paper-based analytical devices with an emphasis on applications of traditional electrochemical methods.

During the last several decades, mass spectrometry (MS) has rapidly developed as a practical technique that can be used to monitor chemical reactions and investigate reaction mechanisms.

Multimodal scanning probe microscopy enables analysis of not only surface topography, but also surface chemistry, electrical, magnetic, and mechanical properties.

Neurotransmitters, acting as chemical messengers, play an important role in neurotransmission, which governs many functional aspects of nervous system activity.

Lipid–protein interactions are essential for modulating membrane protein structures and biological functions in the cell plasma membrane. In this review we describe the salient features of classical and emerging methodologies for studying protein–lipid interactions and their limitations.

Main strategies for detecting changes in intracellular parameters (pH, ion concentration, reactive oxygen species, temperature, RNA levels and enzymatic activity) with photoluminescent nanosensors are reviewed in detail.

A review and tutorial on tunable resistive pulse sensors used as biosensors.

Sequence-dependent non-thiolated DNA–gold affinity interaction for biosensing applications, and the underlying principles governing these interactions are comprehensively reviewed.

With their unique supermacroporous architecture, polyHIPEs (high internal phase emulsions) and cryogels have huge potential as analytical separation stationary phases.

We offer a perspective on how new in situ methods enable the chemically-sensitive, time-resolved and spatially-resolved exploration of semiconductor surface photo(electro)chemistry.

Direct visualization and tracking of small particles at high spatial and temporal resolution provides a powerful approach to probing complex dynamics and interactions in chemical and biological processes.

This review critically analyses the state-of-the-art in correlative electrochemical-topographical imaging, focusing on AFM, shear-force, ion conductance, and electrochemical positional feedback.

Chemosensor development and their mechanisms are detailed for molecular recognition.

Extreme supercharging of proteins yields significant performance gains for the direct characterization of protein sequences by electron capture dissociation mass spectrometry.

Microdroplet-based protein crystallisation using spontaneous emulsification is proposed and demonstrated. The dependency of crystal number in a single microdroplet on the surfactant concentration is discussed.

An SECM based analytical method to study single-cell biomechanics is reported to differentiate between migrating and stationary cancer cells.

Homogeneous, aptamer-based protein quantification via thermofluorimetric analysis (TFA) permits subtraction of autofluorescence in biological samples.

This manuscript presents the first comprehensive microcharacterisation of Fe oxide minerals used in Aboriginal Australian mineral pigments.

Oxidative stress diminishes reduced thiols by decreasing their production or by forming disulfide bonds.

We describe a covalent functionalization method for creating density-controlled selective adsorption sites on carbon-fiber microelectrodes.

A multiplexing 2DE-based approach for parallel analysis of redox-, phospho- and total-proteome is presented and applied to the study of Chlamydomonas TOR pathway.

Herewith the usefulness of a gas chromatography-electron ionization-quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-EI-Q MS) methodology has been evaluated for the identification of potential ripening or variety markers of the avocado fruit.

LTP-MS/MS is a rapid method for the qualitative and semi-quantitative determination of pesticides in wines.

An ionic liquid–polymer gel was found to improve the robustness of an integrated planar electrode system for portable oxygen gas-sensing applications.

Paper microfluidic devices were explored to perform the colorimetric determination of nitrite in saliva, sausage, ham, preservative water and river water samples with no statistical difference from a reference method.

Many microRNA biosensor platforms regard fluorescence signal generation as superior to quenching; however, the two methods are comparable rather than competitive.

Cell collection based on deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) and cell circulation with a loop channel are two component technologies for stressless cell retention which have been developed with a view to working toward suspension culture in a microfluidic channel.

A novel method to quantify the identities, positions, and copy numbers of a large number of different RNA species in single cells has been developed by reiterative cycles of target hybridization, fluorescence imaging and photobleaching.

Profiting the correlation between emission signals to detect residues on solid surfaces when laser ablation faces inspection of suspicious targets.

A simple stereoselective HPLC/DAD method was developed for the determination of ketoconazole (KTZ) cis-enantiomers in human urine.

Antigen-mediated aggregation of antibody–gold nanoparticle conjugates is detected with dynamic light scattering to evaluate antibody–antigen binding.

Strain from Li-alloying anodes in operando is directly detected using generic battery components as a piezoresistive sensor. Magnetic-field alignment effectively enhances the sensitivity of this sensor.

The dynamic wetting technique is described and used to create and aid in analysis of ultrathin (1–5 nm) films on vertically aligned, planar silver substrates of varying microscopic roughness (RMS roughness between 1 and 7 nm).

We present site-selective CNPhe labeling combined with FT IR spectroscopy as a fast, minimally-perturbative, reproducible approach to characterize protein microenvironments.

Combining chemical and enzymatic digestion methods proved to be extremely effective for mass-spectrometry (MS)-based membrane protein analysis.

In this paper, an ambient sampling, portable mass spectrometer coupled to a selection on ambient ionization methods was used to perform real-time reaction monitoring of clandestine methamphetamine syntheses.

Bactrocera oleae Gmelin, the olive fruit fly, is considered a serious pest in the cultivation of olive trees since the larvae feed on the fruit damaging the productivity and quality of the final products (olive fruit and olive oil).

As imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has grown in popularity in recent years, the applications of this technique have become increasingly diverse.

Biofluids, such as serum and plasma, represent an ideal medium for disease diagnosis due to their non-invasive character, ease of collection, that can be performed worldwide, and their fundamental involvement in human functions.

A polymeric ionic liquid sorbent coating is applied in the extraction of two different plasmids from a mixture of E. coli transformants using solid-phase microextraction.

Nowadays consumer concerns related to food safety are increasing and analytical chemists should provide suitable analytical tools to fulfil international legislation and ensure that foodstuff is adequate to be consumed.

This paper describes a small molecule signal amplification reagent and an assay strategy that incorporates in situ signal amplification with minimal production of background signal.

A multi-location peak parking protocol was developed for a non-destructive assessment of the axial heterogeneity of in situ modified monoliths. This was tested on a column with a surface coverage density gradient along the length of the monolithic rod. Qualitative changes in band broadening were observed and were consistent with theoretical studies.

A disposable electrochemical assay that is integrated with standard culture plates for the selective and specific detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Room-temperature ultrasound-assisted digestion of biodiesel for stripping voltammetry of metals with adequate recovery values (94–108%) and low residual carbon content is demonstrated.