Editorial—Emerging Investigators Special Issue

The preliminary sequencing of the human genome was completed recently, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA itself. Analytical scientists have played a great part in this accomplishment, as they will continue to do in the ‘post genome’ sequencing era. The development of e.g. capillary array electrophoresis has played a vital role already; challenges such as functional genomics and mutations analysis await investigation in the years to come. Just as two young scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, opened the door to a new scientific world, analytical science in the future will also be created by young scientists. As new technologies are discovered so new investigators will emerge. New investigators bring a new and vibrant energy to the subject which infuses into the rest of the community. They also bring new ideas and perspectives to existing problems.

This Emerging Investigators issue of The Analyst presents papers by ‘rising stars’ in analytical science from throughout the world. These authors are all early in their scientific careers, but are already contributing extensively to the literature. We hope that collecting these contributions in this issue will facilitate the recognition of these emerging scientists, who have embraced an exciting career in analytical science.

Analytical science can be regarded as the study of measurements. It is an ever-changing discipline having implications in almost all branches of science. Analytical scientists have been key in the development of areas ranging from medicine to geology; from genomics to nanotechnology; from biology to materials science. In this issue, new technologies continue to emerge, with the end goal of understanding the complexity of what is around us—from environmental systems to single living elements.

The idea of the laboratory on a microchip attracts continued research interest, driving technology towards miniaturisation with the idea that one day we will have complete, integrated, hand-held devices capable of performing all manner of analyses quickly and accurately. The lab-on-a-chip concept can take chemical measurements into new dimensions, for example with the development of microarrays (see page 537).

Trace element analysis is refined further by papers reporting e.g. the fundamentals of chemical vapour generation of transition metals for analytical purposes (see page 635) and high-precision isotope ratio measurements by multicollector ICP-MS (see page 779). Contributions also reflect the shift of interest from total element determination to the determination of the nature of a particular species, referred to as ‘speciation analysis’. Thanks to the speciation analysis of biological microsamples such as human brain biopsies (see page 576), trace element analysis is now playing a vital role in medicinal and biological research.

Environmental analysis has always been an area of focus for analytical scientists, particularly so in European groups. A number of papers in the issue refer to new trends in the manufacture of sensors for environmental applications. For example the development of a fibre-optic chemical coupler for use in microfluidic systems (see page 523) and the application of a voltammetric in situ profiling system for the analysis of environmental waters (see page 734).

But it is the rapid growth of bioanalytical chemistry which is perhaps most noticeable. Concepts at the boundary of chemistry and biology continue to captivate scientists’ minds: mass spectrometry measurements are now essential parts of proteomics and drug-delivery studies. Single-cell analysis is only possible today because of the numerous advances in analytical science over the last twenty years. Among a host of other studies, highlights in the issue include work on the identification of specific sequences of oligonucleotides (see page 681), the study of DNA fracture using video microscopy (see page 676) and the detection of DNA using surface-enhanced Raman techniques (see page 692).

As editors of this special issue, we would like to thank all the authors for their valuable contributions. We look forward greatly to their future success!

 

Luis Colón

University at Buffalo

 

Ryszard Lobinski

Universite de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour

 

Yoshinobu Baba

The University of Tokushima

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