Spark Holland, Nanoliter Partner for Fraction Collection Technology

Spark Holland BV of Emmen, the Netherlands, and Nanoliter LLC of Henderson, Nev., have entered into a development partnership with the aim of developing micro- and nanoscale fraction collection methods for capillary liquid chromatographic (LC) separations. Under the agreement, Nanoliter's induction-based fluidics technology (IBF) will be used to spot pico- to microsize volumes of LC effluent into microvials, microwell plates or on Maldi (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) targets. The Spark Holland Alias autosampler will serve as the platform for the new product. The IBF technology enables non-contact deposition of droplets over relatively large distances with very high accuracy. The product will be used to decouple LC separations from mass spectrometric analysis in proteomics research. Decoupling of LC-ESI-MS ((liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry) will allow unlimited MS analysis time for eluting sample components, while fraction collection on Maldi targets will enable LC-Maldi-MS analysis, the companies said. Decoupling LC-MS also gives proteomics scientists the option of storing or reanalyzing LC fractions. The new product will become available for OEM in 2008.