Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography Launched

Diane Turner, Director of Anthias Consulting Ltd, will be involved in a recently launched Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography that has opened at The Open University in Milton Keynes. Diane, together with Bryan White, will be running the demo lab and providing hands-on experience with the instrument for applications work and instrument demonstrations on behalf of Agilent. For more information read below.
 
full press release:
 
Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography
 
The Open University and Agilent Technologies UK Limited today announced the launch of the Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography to be hosted in the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, at The Open University. 
 
The Centre, based in Milton Keynes, will provide the opportunity for Agilent to showcase its recent developments in capillary flow technology hardware to provide a robust and accessible platform technology to support UK analysts in developing applications that utilise multi-dimensional gas chromatography. 
 
Gas chromatography (GC) is the most widely used tool in separation sciences. Multi-dimensional chromatography, utilising two GC columns, has shown that many samples are much more complex than one-dimensional separation techniques can determine. Agilent has developed a unique modulator that is simpler to operate and provides a lower cost of ownership compared to thermal modulation used in other systems. Rather than using cryogenics, flow differentials trap or focus analytes as they exit the first column. The capillary flow technology in these modulators utilizes a new way of fabricating complex structures, which when combined with several other improvements allows the construction of in-oven devices that make difficult GC application problems easier to solve. 
 
The Centre will allow potential customers hands-on access to this hardware, in the form of a dedicated GCxGC-FID/ECD/MS system, and interactions with Diane Turner and Bryan White, two of the leading exponents of comprehensive chromatography in the UK.  Specifically, the Centre will provide:
 
•       Instrument Demonstrations
•       Application Development  (customer specific)
•       Application Development   (strategic)
•       Method Training
 
Dr. Geraint Morgan, Centre Director of the Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography, The Open University, said, “Comprehensive Chromatography is an important component of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial research at The Open University. The establishment of the Agilent Centre of Excellence provides our researchers with a unique opportunity to access world-leading technology and expertise, in addition to providing a vehicle for raising the profile of our research and analytical infrastructure with the analytical community.” 
 
Sarah Corbin, UK Sales Manager, Agilent Technologies, said, “For more than ten years, multidimensional GC has been largely confined to the research laboratory, used only by skilled practitioners of gas chromatography.  With reliable, easy-to-use hardware integrated in to the chromatograph, the technique is now ready for more routine laboratory settings.” 
 
Anyone interested in the services provided by the the new Centre should contact Science-Agilent-Centre@open.ac.uk