Agilent Technologies and University of Arizona to improve
methods for detecting emerging contaminants in water supplies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) has made an agreement with Dr. Shane Snyder - an internationally recognized authority on water contamination from the University of Arizona's Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering - and the university's BIO5 Institute to work together to develop ways to detect emerging contaminants in water.  Emerging contaminants can include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and other substances used in everyday life.

The collaboration is expected to increase the ability of scientists to accurately detect contamination in water supplies in order to protect the environment and public health.

"The partnership with Agilent allows the University of Arizona to more effectively influence water reuse and desalination strategies by ensuring that the required water quality has been achieved for its intended use," said Dr. Snyder. "Not only will we investigate known potential threats to water quality, we will also bridge the gap between detection and health by developing methodologies that can screen water for toxicity from multiple compounds."

The concept of addressing contaminants in potable water as mixtures (as opposed to separate chemicals) is of great interest to the regulatory, scientific and public communities.

"This collaboration will allow us to share applications developed by Dr. Snyder's group in the area of water use and reuse with other researchers," said Joe Weitzel, global environmental manager, Agilent. "Agilent is committed to driving research that will ultimately benefit environmental and public health, and there is no better partner to achieve this goal than Dr. Shane Snyder."

The collaboration with Agilent provides the university and BIO5 with unique analytical capabilities. Using Agilent equipment, nearly any imaginable trace organic or inorganic contaminant can be detected and analyzed, allowing for an ultra-comprehensive analysis of water, including the development of chemical signatures unique to a particular water source. This capability, added to the already renowned water research facilities at the university, will help bridge engineering and public health to improve water usage and quality.

The collaboration will be centered at the BIO5 Institute on the University of Arizona campus, where the infrastructure for cross-cutting work combining biological and chemical research already exists.

The University of Arizona College of Engineering
The University of Arizona College of Engineering in Tucson, Ariz., has 12 accredited academic programs offered by eight departments, including chemical and environmental engineering, where Dr. Shane Snyder has been a faculty member since 2010. The UA College of Engineering received more than $30 million in research awards in 2010.

For further information about the college and its research and innovation, view website: www.engineering.arizona.edu

The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona in profile
The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona mobilizes top researchers in five disciplines - agriculture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and basic science - to find solutions to humanity's most pressing health and environmental challenges. Since 2001, the institute's multidisciplinary approach has resulted in improved food crops, innovative diagnostic devices, and promising new therapies.

For further information, view website: www.bio5.org

Agilent Technologies in profile
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company's 18,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2010.

For further information, view website: www.agilent.com  Refer to page 238

Agilent Technologies' updated NMR software
run on windows and Mac OS, easily creates workflows

Agilent Technologies' release of VnmrJ 3.2, enhances this industry-leading software for nuclear magnetic spectroscopy in a number of significant ways.

With the release of VnmrJ 3.2, Agilent now offers a data station version that runs on Windows® and Mac OS in addition to Linux. This enables users to analyze NMR data anywhere in off-line mode rather than be tethered to the instrument's data system to produce results or learn the system.

A simplified sample-centric workflow interface lets users easily design experiments as simple or complex as needed. Also new is seamless integration with NMR Pipe, the popular plug-in for analyzing proteins and other large biomolecules.

Customers have been asking for these features, and we're pleased to deliver them," said Kevin Meldrum, Agilent marketing director, Research Products Division. "We're focused on advancing NMR technology, and software plays a vital role in this process."

VnmrJ 3.2 supports a wide range of Agilent and Varian NMR systems and accessories. This includes small molecules in-solution, static and spinning solid-state spectroscopy, protein and nucleic-acid solutions, solid-state biological samples, tissues, beads, gels, LC/NMR/MS and imaging.

For further information about Agilent VnmrJ 3.2, view website: www.agilent.com/lifesciences/vnmrJ   Refer to page 238

Thermo Fisher Scientific method
uses GC-MS/MS to significantly increase the
number of pesticides detectable in a single injection

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., has developed a faster screening method for pesticides, enabling labs to simultaneously screen and confirm the presence of more than 1000 pesticides, at low levels, using a single injection. Other commonly used techniques require multiple injections in order to comply with increasingly stringent regulations. The new method, which uses the Thermo Scientific Quantum GC, can acquire 3,000 timed selective reaction monitoring (SRM) transitions per run, increasing sample throughput while ensuring accuracy in a matrix. The method, detailed in an application note entitled "Rapid Analysis of 303 Pesticide Residues in Green Bean Using Triple Quadrupole GC-MS/MS," is available via www.thermoscientific.com/303.

Rapid analysis of pesticide residues with triple quadrupole GC-MS/MS.

Pesticides used to prevent, destroy and control pests on food crops often leave residues on agricultural products that pose risks to consumers. Effects range from short-term health problems such as headaches and dizziness to long-term damage to the nervous system and, in some cases, cancer.

Gas chromatography (GC) with element-selective detectors and single quadrupole gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) are techniques commonly used for GC-amenable pesticide residue analysis in laboratories. As the use of pesticides increases and maximum residue levels (MRLs) set by regulations become more stringent, labs are requiring alternatives to existing techniques that require one sample be analyzed using several injections and multiple methods. The new Thermo Fisher Scientific GC-MS/MS method enables the rapid screening and confirmation of more than 1000 pesticides in just one injection, increasing productivity and, by delivering results faster, safeguarding human health. The method is designed to facilitate compliance with the European Council Directive 96/23/EC, which requires at least two SRM transitions per compound.

In this method, scientists analyzed 303 pesticides in green beans in a single run using the TSQ Quantum GC™ under timed-SRM mode. The timed-SRM function enabled the acquisition of a total of 652 transitions. The dwell time of each transition was automatically maximized for each compound to give the best sensitivity for all pesticides. Using this method, linearity and recoveries are achieved within industry requirements and sensitivity can easily reach 0.0040 mg/kg for all pesticides in green beans. The new method demonstrates that timed-SRM mode is an extremely effective method for screening and determining large amounts of pesticides at low levels in the sample matrix. 

For further information, or a copy of the application note, e-mail: analyze@thermofisher.com or view website: www.thermoscientific.com/gcms  Refer to next page 

Agilent Technologies' Thought Leader Award supports Chris Evelo's work
at Maastricht University to improve integrative systems biology software

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and the Agilent Technologies Foundation today announced that Dr. Chris Evelo and the department of bioinformatics at Maastricht University are the recipients of an Agilent Thought Leader Award supporting development of software to integrate different types of biological data. The goal of this award is to help accelerate breakthroughs in disease research by facilitating integrative systems biology approaches.

The Evelo Lab helped develop WikiPathways.org as a community-curated platform for structuring multi-omics data and the associated open-access pathway analysis tool PathVisio. The Agilent Thought Leader Award will fund development of tools for visualizing metabolite fluxes using PathVisio. The goal is to make modeling results much more accessible to biologists and easier for them to interpret.

"Our work is aimed at achieving better understanding of large biological datasets," Dr. Evelo said. "For this we need the context of biology that we already know and the integration of many types of data. This grant allows us to use existing representation of biological pathways to view flux data from models. That will model results which are much easier to interpret than abstract graphs."

"We're very pleased to help fund the work at the Evelo Lab, as it closely aligns with a major initiative at Agilent: pursuing breakthroughs in biology and medicine through the ability to integrate diverse life science datasets," said John Fjeldsted, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of Agilent's LC/MS business. "Bioinformatics software is still catching up to researchers' abilities to generate data, and we feel that a wide segment of the science community will benefit from this work."

The tools that will be developed in Dr. Evelo's lab will also help researchers who develop flux modeling approaches to improve their models and facilitate their distribution. Basically, these efforts will build a bridge between biologists and metabolic modelers, enabling both communities to better leverage each others' insights.

Development of a new application for gene ontologies is also part of the project. Presently, pathway analysis and gene ontology analysis are complementary but separate approaches. The new application will enrich integrated biology research by using gene ontology data currently available only for genes and extending it to pathway and metabolite analysis.

For further information, view website: www.agilent.com  Refer to page 238