Themed collection Analytical Sciences in the UK

New psychoactive substances (NPSs) are a class of compounds that have been recently made available for abuse. Following an unprecedented increase in the number of NPSs in the last 5 years this mini-review overviews this recent emerging research area and the analytical approaches reported.

A survey of the recent, significant developments on nanomaterials enabled ultrasensitive DNA and gene mutation assays is presented.

Mass spectrometry based metabolomics profiling.

The in vitro identification of volatile biomarkers is the first stage in the development of an exhaled breath test for the identification of a cystic fibrosis pathogen.

Analytical chemistry applied to 3D tissue culture models.

This review provides the necessary knowledge to accurately model ROA spectra of solvated systems and interpret their vibrational characteristics.

This tutorial review focusses on the design and application of glyconanoparticles for the colorimetric detection of lectins, toxins and viruses.

Nanomaterials are revolutionising analytical applications with low-cost tests that enable detecting a target molecule in a few steps and with the naked eye.

The origins of SIFT created to study interstellar chemistry and SIFT-MS developed for ambient gas and exhaled breath analysis and the UK centres in which these techniques are being exploited.

The use of vibrational spectroscopy, FTIR and Raman, for cytology and cellular research has the potential to revolutionise the approach to cellular analysis.

We report on the use of high resolution Raman spectroscopy mapping combined with a micro-engineered stem cell platform.

Application of a SERS DNA detection assay for the identification of bacterial meningitis pathogens in clinical samples.

A capillary scale ceramic microfluidic LC/MS/MS system was successfully employed for the analysis of pharmaceutical compounds in plasma.

For the first time a novel indirect, independently validated, electrochemical protocol for the sensing of MPA and 2-AI (“Synthacaine”) is reported.

Infrared spectral signatures of drug–cell interaction, suggest that both the stages of proliferation and the degree of apoptosis need to be taken into account to elucidate the fine biochemical details of the immediate cellular response to the drug.

Many organic molecules have strong absorption bands which can be accessed by ultraviolet short pulse lasers to produce efficient ionization.

An HCA-FLIM instrument is presented alongside exemplar oligomerisation, intermolecular and intramolecular FRET assays that require robust measurement of small lifetime changes.

Characterisation of plant leaf growth employing vibrational spectroscopy approaches.

Measurement of serum bile acid concentration is a valuable tool for the management of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) and is also useful in the monitoring of other liver diseases.

A novel format of the microtitre plate equipped with magnetic inserts allows rapid and cost-effective development of the controlled release materials.

We demonstrate differentiation between two diets fed to rats across time via instrumentation combined with multivariate data analysis.

Different mass spectrometry approaches are combined to investigate the conformational flexibility of α-synuclein.

Modification of Ag colloids with thiocholine bromide switches the zeta potential from ca. −50 mV to ca. +50 mV, giving SERS substrates which promote adsorption of anions.

1% Implanter Performance: RBS/measured fluence ratio for 16 implants (10¹⁵ As cm⁻²) over 2 years.

GSH modified QDs are used for selective As³⁺ measurement for river waters in a mobile phone camera-linked unit.

Azidomethyl and cyclooctene dUTPs have been incorporated into DNA by various polymerase enzymes and labelled with cyclooctyne and tetrazine fluorophores.

Differential tissue-specific effects of nanoparticles: biospectroscopy as a toxicity-sensing tool.

A simple method for mitigating the adverse effects of salt adduction during native protein mass spectrometry by addition of amino-acids.

In this paper we have presented the first example of multiplexing pH and redox responsive SERS nanosensors for intracellular live single cell measurement on a cell by cell basis.

Differential distribution of paraffin in a normal colon tissue section after various de-Waxing procedures in comparison to a paraffinized tissue.

This paper describes the development and characterisation of an unmodified hand drawn pencil electrode for the differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetric determination of lead in an environmental water sample.

This methodology provides increased assay sensitivity and facilitates small volume biofluid analysis in high percent organic samples.

We demonstrate how changes in the application of colour shading can dramatically alter Raman images of single human keratinocytes cells.

The 5-nonanone organic phase has been shown to be a stable solvent for use in electrochemistry, ion and electron transfer has been studied at the organic/water interface.

Raman micro-spectroscopy was used to characterize time- and spatially-dependent molecular interactions between intracellular pathogens and the host cells.

Transmission Raman Spectroscopy and photon diode enhancer facilitates faster scanning and quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical tablets.

A SlipChip platform with six parallel 500 nL reaction chambers was fabricated using rapid prototyping in acrylic. We demonstrated real-time RPA with 1 fg (1000 copies) of DNA.

A comprehensive transmission electron microscopy imaging protocol to characterise in vitro human cell barriers and study mechanisms of nanoparticle transport.

This investigation examines published results of traditional diffusion experiments on ovalbumin and bovine serum albumin to determine the extent to which assumed concentration independence of the translational diffusion coefficient is a reasonable approximation in the analysis of boundary spreading in sedimentation velocity experiments on proteins.

A new UPLC-PDA MS/MS method has been applied to reference and historical yarns dyed with dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria L.). The effect of photo-degradation and textile preparation techniques (such as over-dyeing) on the dye fingerprint was investigated and the results correlated with those obtained from historical samples from the Burrell and Bodleian collections, UK.

New ink for testing low activity photocatalytic materials like self cleaning tiles.

Electrically switchable surfaces based on oligopeptides are ubiquitous in both switching specific protein interactions in highly fouling media while still offering the non-specific protein-resistance to the surface.