As the turn of the year rapidly approaches, it is that time again when those readers of Chromatography Today who are members of The Chromatographic Society will hopefully be digging into their pockets to fork out their membership for yet another year. There might be a few out there who are not members. Think about it 2010 could be the big year when you decided to commit yourself to supporting the Society in its mission to promote the development of separation science and, more importantly for you, take advantage of the many benefits conferred upon you through membership. There will be plenty said throughout the year on the different benefits but first it's worth looking at the primary activity of the Society i. e. organising topical, relevant symposia in separation science. Usually we are talking about four such meetings every year and you just need to attend one and you have more than paid for your membership with the discount from the members' registration fee. Just e- mail chromsoc@ meetingmakers. co. uk for a membership application form! 22November/ December 2009 Back in 2006 in the Society's Golden Jubilee year a series of meetings on separation sciences in the pharmaceutical industry proved very popular. Four years on, we could be excused for repeating the formula but it has quite rightly been decided that while we should continue our policy of embracing the opportunity to use prestigious major pharmaceutical venues we should keep the meeting themes as broad as possible. In this spirit, the first meeting of 2010 will take place on Thursday, March 18th at the brand new conference centre ( pictured below) at AstraZeneca's Alderley Park site in parkland Cheshire and will cover the theme " Advances in High Resolution and High Speed Separations". While this may have been a popular theme of late, there is still much mileage and interest in it. In reviewing the latest developments in high resolution, high speed separations and associated detection, specific attention will be given to ultra high pressure liquid chromatography ( UHPLC), two-dimensional chromatography and the use of gas and supercritical fluid chromatography for problem solving. Speakers already confirmed include Peter Schoenmakers ( University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Patrik Petersson ( AstraZeneca R& D Lund, Sweden) and Frédéric Lynen ( University of Ghent, Belgium). While elsewhere in Chromatography Today, Chris Bevan bemoans the lack of UK conference delegates visiting Eastern Europe, the Society cannot be accused of not bringing the best of European separation science to the UK and this meeting certainly follows the trend. Meeting organisers, Adrian Clarke and Amjad Khan do though promise to fit in a UK speaker or two! The show moves on in May to another pharmaceutical venue for our Spring Symposium. For the first time, a Society meeting will be hosted by Merck, Sharp and Dohme ( MSD). Paul Ferguson ( Pfizer) who has been very much instrumental in ensuring very high quality scientific programmes at recent Society Spring Symposia will be working with a team from MSD's Hoddesden site in Hertfordshire to stage a one-and- a- half day symposium on 19th - 20th May with the theme " Current Method Development Strategies in Separation Science". Encompassed within this theme will be sessions on ( a) ways to optimise separations based on mobile phase ( b) ways to optimise separations based on stationary phase ( c) quality- by- design approaches to method development ( d) GC method development. Speakers confirmed already, Dr Roman Szucs ( Pfizer, UK), Dr Rudi Sneyers ( Johnson & Johnson), Dr Chris Welch ( Merck, USA), have a pharmaceutical background but there will be something for everyone in the programme being planned. A very important, integral part of the Society's 2010 programme is ISC 2010 taking place in Valencia from September 12th to 16th. The Society is very proud of its heritage as being, with the French and German separation science societies, one of the three main pillars supporting this longstanding historic series which began way back in London in 1956. The series has generally rotated around France, Conference Centre at AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, Cheshire The Chromatographic Society 2010

Germany and the UK but the Society has played its role in widening participation by involving the Dutch in Amsterdam ( 1988) and the Danes in Copenhagen ( 2006). The 2010 meeting is being held in Spain courtesy of the ' turn' of France but it is being recognised that widening participation even further is long overdue. The Chromatographic Society hopes to be proactive in moving this process along. To touch again on Chris Bevan's article on Eastern Europe, it is time for a bridge to be built between ISC and several satellite separation science symposium series in Eastern Europe through widening ISC to embrace Central and Eastern Europe ( not to mention Scandinavia and Southern Europe) and more nations becoming actively involved in EuSSS. However, to get back to ISC 2010 (!), Valencia is a beautiful, historic venue which is still warm in September. More importantly, in fitting with one of the world, s major separation science meetings, the range of topics to be covered is exceptionally wide ( Fundamentals of Chromatography, Gas Chromatography, Liquid Chromatography, Multidimensional Chromatography, Hyphenated Techniques, Fast Separations, Column Technology, Electrodriven Separations, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography, Enantioseparations, New Detection Methods, Nanotechnology, Industrial and Process Chromatography, Environment Speciation Analysis, Food quality and safety, Clinics and Pharmaceutics, Life Sciences / Bioanalysis, Forensics Polymers ( http:// isc2010. eu). The list of invited speakers in these topics is already looking impressive as well as multinational. Important dates are: August 30, 2009First Circular and Call for Papers April 15, 2010 Deadline for oral contributions June 30, 2010 Deadline for poster presentations July 31, 2010 Deadline for last minute posters and early bird registration September 12, 2010Opening of ISC2010 If that were not enough, the Society will be rounding off its 2010 meetings calendar with another meeting at a major pharma venue. The actual venue for the meeting to be held in late October or early November is still to be confirmed but what is already certain is that the meeting topic will be " Biomacromolecules: the next big challenge for separation science" Some might argue that this is a challenge that is already upon us. Indeed, the Society held a meeting at Ware on a similar theme in November, 2008. However, with the increasing number of biologicals currently going through Pharmaceutical Development, it is a bi g and important challenge and revisiting the topic is more than justified. Remember, you can get highly discounted members' rates on these meetings by joining the Society. Top rate is £ 40 for Fellows. Students can join for a meagre £ 10! E- mail chromsoc@ meetingmakers. co. uk or call Matthew at Meeting Makers on 0141 434 1500 23 Wyatt Technology Corporation( USA) announces that Pfizer Global R& D, has chosen its DAWN ® HELEOS ® Multi- Angle Light Scattering ( MALS) instrument to monitor protein reagent quality in drug discovery. The instrument's unmatched analytical capabilities are illustrated in a new application note, titled " Using MALS to Ensure Protein Reagent Quality in Drug Discovery", which is available to download free- of- charge via www. wyatt. com Quality and consistency of protein reagents are critical elements to successful drug discovery and development. When targeting a particular protein of interest, the best way to obtain dependable results is to perform different in vitro experiments using a protein with similar biological properties. It is important that molecularity, purity, shape and degree of heterogeneity remain the same regardless of any alterations of the model protein or the formulation buffer. Affinity tags or changes to buffer excipients may also be required. Traditional characterization techniques, such as plate- based assays and biophysical methods where native proteins are preferred, are not efficient when alterations of solution properties of proteins occur. Crystallization studies, for example, typically have a higher Protein Reagent Quality in Drug Discovery rate of success when the proteins involved are simplified, whether they are truncated or expressed in bacteria to minimize post-translational modifications. MALS overcomes these limitations and has proven a very powerful technique for monitoring solution properties of proteins while changes to reagents are taking place. The new application note demonstrates how light scattering data can be used to elucidate the solution properties of a protein expressed from two different constructs. The first construct was the shorter of the two, designed for crystallization studies. Experimental results, combined with the fact that the enzyme showed activity and was the predominant species in mass spectrometry, would lead to the erroneous confirmation of the suitability of the reagent. The DAWN HELEOS MALS data, however, showed that the enzyme was very heterogeneous. The second construct, which was designed to address this problem, was the full- length enzyme. In that case, the DAWN HELEOS demonstrated that the protein was in its biologically active form ( dimer) and was highly homogenous. This information provided confidence to the project team at Pfizer to move forward with the second construct for crystallography, NMR and HTS studies. For further information please email wyatt@ scottpr. com