43 The presentations, stretched over three days covering a number of topical subjects including the new Metabolites in Safety Testing ( MIST) guidelines, dried blood spot analysis, large molecule analysis, incurred sample reproducibility ( ISR) and an update on current thinking on the subject of bioanalytical method validation from the FDA. Interspersed amongst these were also a number of scientific vendor presentations. There were two social networking events organised on the Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. On Tuesday, the evening meal and welcome drinks were served at Denbies vineyard, England's largest vineyard situated in Dorking, Surrey. On Wednesday evening the conference banquet and pre- dinner drinks were served in the University Season restaurant on campus. Mini- Exhibition As an integral part of the symposium, Tuesday saw 12 scientific vendor companies with tabletop displays of their latest product offerings. On Wednesday, it was the turn of the bioanalytical CROs which included ABS Labs, Cyprotex Discovery Ltd, Quality Assistance, York Bioanalytical, Quotient Bioresearch, Covance, BASI and HLS. The 18th International Reid Bioanalytical Forum Richard Houghton, Principal Scientist, Bioanalytical Sciences, Quotient Bioresearch Ltd. Clare Kingsley, Sector Manager, Bioanalytical Sciences, Quotient Bioresearch Ltd. The International Reid Bioanalytical Forum, initiated by Dr Eric Reid in 1975, is held every two years and offers an opportunity for industry, academia and analytical vendor organisations to come together and discuss the latest issues around bioanalysis. The Forum is run by the Forum Syndicate under the auspices of a sub- committee of the Chromatographic Society and draws on members from academia and industry. Its current members are Dr Howard Hill ( chairman and co- organiser), Dr Derek Stevenson, Forum organiser, Dr John Lough, Treasurer, Dr Stephen Westwood, Dr Robin Whelpton, and Dr Ian Wilson. The 18th International Reid Bioanalytical Forum was once again held on the Campus University of Surrey, from Monday 6th - Thursday 9th July 2009 with 120 registered delegates. Lectures were held in the Austin Pearce Building with the adjacent exhibition hall providing space for vendor stands and a poster exhibition. CompanyKey Products On DisplayContact BiotageSample preparation consumables www. biotage. com including SPE and SLE extraction cartridgesTel: + 46 18 56 59 00 GraceVisionHT UPLC columnswww. discoverysciences. com Tel: + 44 ( 0) 1480 32 4430 HichromHypersil Gold, Nucleodur and Zorbax RRHT www. hichrom. co. uk UPLC columns and chromatographic training servicesTel: + 44 ( 0) 118 930 3660 IDBSAdvanced data management solutionswww. idbs. com Tel: + 44( 0) 1483- 595000 Laboratory Electronic laboratory notebookswww. labnotes. com Data SolutionsTel: + 44 ( 0) 1904 686067 PresearchLaboratory solutions including separation equipment, www. presearch. co. uk automation equipment and suppliesTel: + 44 ( 0) 1256 365492 ShimadzuRecent Developments in Column and www. shimadzu. co. uk Instrument technologiesTel: + 44 ( 0) 8708 375209 Spark Online SPE extraction systems for sample cleanupwww. sparkholland. com Holland BVTel : + 31 591 631700 Supelco Ascentis T LC Columnswww. sigma- aldrich. com AnalyticalTel: 0800 717181 Thermo FisherHypersil Gold UPLC columnswww. thermo. com ScientificTel: + 44 ( 0) 1442 233 555 VarianHPLC systems and a wide range of column types and www. varianinc. com packing materials including Pursuit ® and Tel: + 44 ( 0) 1865 291 500 Polaris ® LC Columns WatersAcquity UPLC T hardware and columnswww. waters. com Tel: + 44 ( 0) 208 238 6100 Figure 1. University of Guildford - The venue for the 18th International Reid Bioanalytical Forum

44November/ December 2009 The Scientific Program Session 1 - Mixed theme including metabolites in safety testing ( Chaired by Derek Stevenson) Derek Stevenson opened the spring symposium with a welcome address and then passed to Howard Hill speaking on ' The Changing Face of the Pharmaceutical Industry: Impact on Bioanalysis'. He outlined the drivers influencing the industry including new analytical technologies and the rise in the number of large molecule therapeutics undergoing development. He commented that the regulatory bar is being raised, in part by pharma companies, to exclude new players. Also, the increasing importance of India & China to pharma companies in the market place both as cost effective areas of the world to carry out drug development activities but also, with the emerging wealth of both, potentially huge markets to sell drugs. The closing remarks were directed towards the Bioanalytical Forum itself. As part of the organising committee, Howard invited comments on where the future of the meeting lay The following two presentations were on the subject of the recently published FDA guidelines on Metabolites in Safety Testing ( MIST). Firstly Dennis Smith ( Pfizer) outlined the development in thinking that has led to the guidelines and highlighted the danger of using plasma metabolite concentration alone in classifying major and minor metabolites as the volume of distribution may mask the true toxicological potential of a metabolite. He then went on to describe the four classifications of drug side effects, type A, B, C & D and illustrated each with examples. Mark Seymour ( Xceleron) described the advantages of using of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ( AMS) in combination with C14 microtracer doses of drug for metabolite identification in Phase 1 studies. This negates the requirement for separate mass balance studies saving development time/ money. The final presentation of the session was from Michelle Gradley ( Novacta Biosystems) who described the synthesis of metabolite reference standards using microbial systems which have been shown to have the capacity to mimic mammalian metabolism of drugs, carrying out the same highly region and stereoselective modifications as seen in the liver and other organs. Session 2 - Mixed theme including peptide quantification ( Chaired by Jaap Wieling) Magnus Knutsson ( Ferring) presented on ' Quantification of peptide drugs in biological fluids of low pg/ mL levels using LC- MS/ MS'. He outlined the generic approach to large molecule analysis employed at Ferring. Molecules < 5000 amu are analysed by LC-MS/ MS whilst > 5000 amu remain the realm of immunoassay. With method sensitivity remaining the main challenge with LC-MS/ MS analysis of large molecules, he described the use of large sample volume extraction using SPE ( Oasis WCX), miniaturisation of coupled LC columns ( use of 1.0 mm i. d.) and a Sciex API5000 instrument enabling LLOQs of 5 pg/ mL to be achieved for some peptide molecules. However, the potential for non specific binding to some polypropylene plates and solubility of proteins and peptides remain challenges that must be overcome during method development. The final presentation of this first day was from Chris Harrington ( University of Surrey) on ' High accuracy and high sensitivity methods for analysis of platinum cancer drug DNA adducts in cells'. The cytotoxic efficacy of platinum- DNA adducts and the relationship between adduct concentration in tumour cells and blood is not well understood. By measuring these biomarkers, information on a patient's clinical drug response could be obtained. By coupling a highly specific enzyme based adduction isolation method with a sensitive detection based on HPLC coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ( HPLC- ICP- MS) it was possible to measure platinum- DNA adduct formation from a number of different sample types. The methodology opens up the possibility to tailor cancer treatment to an individual's potential to form and repair DNA- adducts, making for a targeted treatment regime. Session 3 - Mixed theme including a number of vendor presentations ( Chaired by Robin Whelpton) This session, covering the Tuesday morning of the conference, included a number of vendor presentations. These included Anne- Marie Orkild ( Waters) on ' A Comprehensive Approach to Developing Selective and Sensitive Bioanalytical Methods for Peptide Therapeutics in Humana Plasma, Klaus Buckendahl ( Sigma- Aldrich) on ' Hybrid SPE in the removal of Phospholipids and Proteins in Biological fluids', Jonathan Coffey ( Shimadzu) on ' Analysis of impurities in streptomycin and dihydrostreptomycin by hydrophilic interaction chromatography/ electrospray ionisation quadrupole ion trap/ time- of- flight mass spectrometry' and Pär Davidsson ( DiLab) on Automated Blood Sampling. Mark Bayliss ( Pfizer) presented on ' Halo Columns; what are they, what are their advantages' describing the pelicular particles as " inside- out maltesers" i. e. the honeycomb bit on the outside. His practical tips were that a pre- column filter must always be used, they can be used with ballistic gradients, are only 20% less efficient than sub 2 µm columns, can be used back- to- front, up to temperatures of 80oC and in his experience, Figure 2. Slide for Mark Seymour's presentation on ' HPLC- AMS: seeing through the MIST'. Figure 3. Slide from Anne- Marie Orkild's presentation on ' Development of Selective and Sensitive Bioanalytical Methods for Peptide Therapeutics in Human Plasma'.