EASTERN ANALYTICAL SYMPOSIUM & EXPOSITION 2023 Abstract Book

Summary of the 2023 Eastern Analytical Symposium - Analytical Advances and Applications

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TOPIC

The 2023 Eastern Analytical Symposium brought together contemporary advances in analytical chemistry across chromatography, mass spectrometry, vibrational spectroscopy, separations science, process analytical technologies (PAT), environmental monitoring (notably PFAS), proteomics, and forensic applications. The collection of abstracts demonstrates how modern analytical methods are being adapted to solve real-world problems: detection of trace contaminants, characterization of complex biological and materials systems, enhancement of pharmaceutical process control, and enabling regulatory compliance. These topics are central to quality assurance, environmental health, drug discovery and development, and forensic science.

OBJECTIVES AND OVERVIEW OF THE CONFERENCE CONTENT

• Present innovations in separations (1D, 2D, 3D liquid chromatography, GC×GC), and their coupling to advanced detection (qMS, QqQ, QTOF, ion mobility).
• Showcase high-throughput and microdroplet MS approaches to accelerate synthesis and screening for drug discovery.
• Discuss sensitive and chemically specific imaging and vibrational methods (Raman, SRS, FTIR-ATR, SHG/SHLS) for nanoplastics, cell membranes, and forensic samples.
• Address environmental monitoring and exposure: PFAS transport, passive samplers, rainwater and seafood bioaccumulation, and soil forensics.
• Describe proteomics and biomarker discovery using nanoLC-MS/MS applied to breast cancer detection and other biological targets.
• Explain PAT implementations, automation, and AI/ML tools for process control, method development, and data integrity.

METHODOLOGICAL THEMES

• Multi-dimensional separations: heart-cutting and comprehensive 2D-LC and GC×GC to resolve highly complex matrices (e.g., therapeutic oligonucleotides, lipids, polymer and petroleum fractions).
• Orthogonal MS ionization and parallel detection (LCxMSy) to maximize detection coverage and structural information via ESI, APCI, APPI and APGC.
• High-throughput microdroplet and ESI accelerated chemistry enabling rapid reaction screening and small-scale synthesis coupled directly to MS readout.
• Advanced vibrational imaging (stimulated Raman scattering SRS, confocal Raman microscopy, FTIR-ATR, SHLS) for single-particle chemical identification (nanoplastics), interfacial chemistry inside porous silica, and label-free studies at biological membranes.
• Targeted and non-targeted HRMS strategies (including ion mobility and DIA workflows) to discover and quantify PFAS, emerging organofluorines and other environmental contaminants.
• Proteomics workflows (in-gel and in-solution digests, nanoLC-MS/MS, QTOF) and bioinformatic pipelines for biomarker identification in serum, milk, and tissue extracts.
• Process analytical technologies (PAT) using mid-IR and Raman with dynamic calibration (DoE-PAT), real-time DLS/FFF for particle processes, and MALDI-MS automation for formulation risk assessment.
• Statistical and ML approaches: chemometrics, PLSR, extreme gradient boosting, dynamic mode decomposition, and consensus machine learning for model robustness and predictive biomarker panels.

INSTRUMENTATION USED (SYNTHESIS ACROSS ABSTRACTS)

• Mass spectrometers: triple quadrupole MS (QqQ), quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF), high-resolution Orbitrap/QTOF platforms, MALDI-TOF, ion mobility MS.
• Chromatography: UHPLC/UPLC systems, comprehensive GC×GC, HPLC (analytical and preparative), SEC, ion chromatography (IC), hydrophilic interaction (HILIC), SFC, 2D- and 3D-LC configurations, and capillary electrophoresis (CE).
• Detectors & ion sources: ESI, APCI, APPI, APGC, APCI-APGC, charged aerosol detector (CAD), evaporative light scattering, ELSD, and fluorescence detectors.
• Vibrational and optical: Confocal Raman microscopy, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) hyperspectral imaging, FTIR-ATR, A-TEEM excitation-emission mapping, second harmonic generation/scattering (SHG/SHLS), low-frequency Raman for polymorphs.
• Elemental analysis: ICP-MS, ICP-OES, ion chromatography with suppressed conductivity.
• Other tools: TEM/SEM with EDX, FIB-SEM, dynamic light scattering (DLS), field flow fractionation (FFF), PAT probes, microfluidic droplet platforms, passive PFAS samplers, and automated sample prep robots.

MAIN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (SYNTHESIS OF SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS)

• Separations: 2D- and multi-dimensional LC configurations (including LCxMSy) substantially increase resolving power for complex biologicals (oligonucleotides, lipids, therapeutic peptides) and enable detection of low-level impurities via trapping/enrichment strategies with >97% recovery reported in trapping 2D-LC workflows.
• Drug discovery: Microdroplet ESI accelerates reactions (up to ~10^4 faster vs bulk) enabling ultrafast reaction screening, small-scale synthesis and direct bioassays coupled to MS at high throughput.
• Nanoplastics and environmental monitoring: Hyperspectral SRS imaging plus automated spectral matching yielded single-particle chemical ID of nanoplastics in bottled water; dedicated passive samplers and nanographene samplers provide large enrichment factors for low-ng/L to pg/L PFAS levels.
• PFAS: Rainwater and coastal studies reveal a wide diversity of PFAS (including emerging species and branched isomers like GenX and TFA), site-specific isomeric distributions indicating varied sources, and evidence that standard targeted lists miss a substantial fraction of organofluorine load.
• Proteomics & biomarkers: Multiple small cohort proteomics studies (nanoLC-MS/MS) identified differentially expressed proteins in breast milk and sera (apolipoproteins, serpins, immune and glycoproteins) that may serve as candidate biomarkers pending larger validation sets. Consensus ML models from intracellular and media metabolomics identified metabolite panels predictive of MSC potency (lipid classes and amino acids highlighted).
• Forensics: GC-QqQ-MS showed high true positive/negative rates for OGSR on skin swabs; particle-correlated Raman spectroscopy (PCRS) automated approaches show promise for soil mineral forensic screening and mock-casework source discrimination.
• Method development & automation: Computer-assisted chromatography modeling and dedicated databases help build robust universal methods (e.g., universal IC for anions). Automation and software (cipher, SharePoint workflows) improved data integrity and lab throughput. Green and QbD-driven method design yields robust, eco-friendlier LC methods for APIs and impurities including nitrosamines with improved chromatographic selectivity to avoid isobaric interferences (e.g., NDMA vs DMF).

BENEFITS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

• Improved public and environmental health surveillance through more sensitive, broader analytical coverage for PFAS and contaminants in food, water, and biota.
• Enhanced pharmaceutical quality: advanced 2D-LC, trapping enrichment and targeted MS approaches enable reliable detection and quantification of genotoxic and low-level impurities for QC and regulatory compliance.
• Faster drug discovery & HT screening: microdroplet MS and automated MALDI/MS workflows accelerate reaction optimization and formulation risk assessment.
• Forensic advances: non-destructive FTIR-ATR fingerprint detection, PCRS soil/mineral profiling, and robust OGSR workflows assist investigations with higher specificity and throughput.
• PAT and process improvement: in-line spectroscopy combined with dynamic calibration, PAT probes, and AI/ML enable real-time control, faster stability evaluation and reduced development timelines.
• Laboratory efficiency: open-source hardware, automation of wet chemistry, and cloud/SharePoint-based data management reduce cost and increase throughput while improving data integrity.

FUTURE TRENDS AND POSSIBILITIES

• Expansion of non-targeted HRMS and ion-mobility aided screening will continue to reveal unknown environmental contaminants and address the “unidentified organofluorine” in biomonitoring studies.
• Broader deployment of multi-dimensional separations with parallel MS detectors and AI-supported method development will make 2D/3D-LC more routine for complex matrices.
• Integration of microdroplet chemistry and automated high-throughput MS will increasingly shorten the design-make-test cycle in medicinal chemistry and enzymology.
• Wider adoption of standardized digital pipelines (FAIR data), model-transfer techniques for spectroscopy, and national repositories for vibrational data will enable reproducible photonic data science and cross-instrument model sharing.
• Continued growth in PAT coupled with adaptive ML models will enable autonomous optimization and scale-up of photochemical/electrochemical continuous manufacturing platforms.
• Analytical method modernization will increasingly emphasize greener solvents, lower waste, and QbD-driven robustness to meet regulatory and sustainability requirements.

CONCLUSION
The 2023 EAS abstracts illustrate a dynamic, multidisciplinary analytical community addressing complexity at the molecular, particulate and environmental scales. Progress in multi-dimensional separations, high-resolution and high-throughput mass spectrometry, vibrational imaging, automated PAT, and data science approaches (chemometrics/ML) are converging to provide more sensitive, selective, and faster tools for environmental monitoring, pharmaceutical quality control, forensic science, and biomedical discovery. Continued integration of instrumentation advances, automation, standardized data pipelines, and model-driven method development is expected to accelerate translation of these research advances into routine practice.

REFERENCES (SELECTED ITEMS CITED IN ABSTRACTS)

• Bang, J. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138, 4448 (2016).
• Villarreal, J. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 11973 (2017).
• Porter, Chem 5, 2264 (2019).
• Davis, ACS Nano 15, 1426 (2021); Lang, ACS Nano 15, 10275 (2021).
• Xin Yan et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 12960–12972 (2016).
• N. M. Morato et al. SLAS Technology 26, 555–571 (2021).