Review of the Year 2024
We are very pleased that as a small company (now in its seventh year a start-up), we were able to research, publish, train and help partners (in their and in our laboratory) in 2024 in particular on our core topic ‘Mass Spectrometric Non-Target Screening (NTS)’, but also on instrumental analytics with polarity-extended chromatography and mass spectrometry. After 2022 – with its adverse external circumstances for our laboratory – the number of requests that can be processed increased continuously again in 2023 and reached a current maximum in 2024 with over 3000 NTS measurements in our Augsburg laboratory. Some research initiatives were successfully completed in 2024, while we were able to support others with NTS during ongoing operations and launched three new ones. In 2024, new topics could be developed, so that new research projects in the NTS can also be expected in 2025. But consulting activities have also become established in 2024, so laboratories in the field of food analysis, leachables & extractables analysis, environmental analysis and chemical process analysis were able to support NTS, e.g. in the industrial and commercial analytical environment as well as in the official sector. So we were once again granted the privilege of working on many interesting samples, answering analytical questions and opening up new topics for the future.
Research
With the two research projects RIKovery and bee2diversity, we were in the final project phase after a cost-neutral extension in 2024. Thus, the individual cooperation groups were able to establish the previous, very far-reaching and interesting findings in the final phase with final campaigns and transfer them into their sustainably usable version. From both initiatives, NTS approaches were established for the comparative investigation of industrial wastewater processes (e.g. with high salt loads) or for bee pollen-containing samples and flower samples. If you have a need here, we will now also offer established NTS products in both sectors from 2025; please feel free to ask. Final information (in German) can be found here and there was also a first review article (in German) on the bees at the end of 2022.. We are currently writing final reports and further publications on both projects (which will then be cited in the 2025 annual review).
In 2024, we are pleased to have supported the iMolch– consortium – funded in the BMBF funding measure LURCH: Sustainable Groundwater Management – in several measurement campaigns with our NTS expertise and with our NTS routine analysis. This data contributes new insights into water management and we are curious to see how things will continue there. We wish the consortium continued success and insightful investigations and modelling.
As mentioned at the beginning, we were able to launch or participate in three new research initiatives in 2024. For example, we successfully applied for funds via a ‘Digitalbonus‘ to use it with our colleagues from the Fraunhofer Institute ISC -Digital in a new digital product, the so-called NTS-HIVE, and to implement it in a first prototype by 2025.
We are particularly pleased to be able to contribute our NTS expertise for the use and reuse of industrial water to the BayWater consortium – funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation – together with our old workplace, namely the Technical University of Munich.
And it is a special pleasure for us as a training partner in the MobiliTraIN project – funded under the European Union Horizon Europe Framework Program for Research and Innovation – to be able to bring future doctoral students together and further train them with non-target screening.
As in previous years, we made our experience and findings available to various initiatives and committees in 2024. For example, we continued to actively support the IGF project No. 21309 N – “ComScreen”, the IGF project No. 21954 N – “DA-EDA”, as well as the FH cooperative project “DeepAuthent” (in each case ideally, with consulting or self-financed analysis data) so that these consortia can transfer their developments into products in a targeted manner.
We also took on industry-related functions, e.g. as a member of the Industrial Council. We were also involved in technical committees and analytical committees, such as the committee ‘Non-Target’ in the Analytical Section and ‘Persistent Mobile and Toxic Substances’ in the Section Emission (both in the Water Chemical Society of the GDCh).
In order to be able to transfer research approaches into routine and industrial application, there are different approaches that can be pursued. In 2024, for example, we were actively involved in the regulatory procedures: DIN NA 119-01-03-02-16 AK “LC-MS/MS-Verfahren”, ISO NP 13808-1 “Non-target screening” – Parts 1/2 and DIN NA 057-08-02-05 AK “Validation concepts for non-targeted methods in analytics”.
And for the year 2024, the Stifterverband e.V. unfortunately no longer offered a new seal ‘Innovative through Research’, so we still wore the old one, which we will now remove for 2025 (even if the title is still true).
Publications
The seventh year, i.e. 2024, was again a very publish-rich year for us. The number of articles in so-called on-the-bench journals remained high and so we published ‘scientific’ as well as ‘popular science’ in parallel. In this way, we continue to achieve the desired dissemination of knowledge on our routine concepts of polarity-extended chromatography and modern non-target screening in laboratories of the most diverse orientations. There were three scientific review articles with different consortia (on I. Should transformation products change the way we manage chemicals?, II. Bridging knowledge gaps in human chemical exposure via drinking water with non-target screening and III. Characterization of European House Dust Contaminants), an ‘Analytical Chemistry’ paper: Quantification approaches in Non-Target LC/ESI/HRMS analysis: An interlaboratory comparison and seven in the Analytica-Jahr seven popluar scientific articles (3 in German and 4 in English).
With ‘NTS for water purification concepts of opticians.’ in the GIT laboratory journal (open access Zugang and open access entry ) , we investigated activated carbon effectiveness and specificity using RPLC-HILIC chromatography. Furthermore, the coupling was used in a Thermo Fisher Application Note (open access entry) and a coffee bean study (open access entry). In addition, another German article on ‘Mass Spectrometric Non-Target Screening – Instrumental Analytics with Modern Data Evaluation and Interpretation’ (open access Zugang) was published at the Analytica trade fair in Munich.
It was important to us to put the chromatography technique ‘SFC’ in the spotlight again in 2024 so that this very great separation technique remains in the consciousness of the analytical community. For this reason, we have again published extensively on this topic (such as in the journal LABO – Fit for Lab und in ‘The Analytical Scientist“). Our article in the AFIN-TS Forum ‘Supercritical Fluid Chromatography coupled to an Orbitrap Exploris 120 mass spectrometer – Quantitative Viewpoint‘ was already published in 2023 and was reprinted in English and German by Analytik-News as a reprint (open access English – open access Deutsch) and other journals also showed interest in our findings in the SFC. For this reason, we are currently writing several peer-reviewed articles on the application and method development of SFC, so that this separation technology will remain a major topic for our company in 2025.
Last but not least, we presented a wide-ranging poster at ‘Wasser 2024‘ entitled ‘ SFC coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry – The new gold standard for polarity-extended non-target screening’. The title describes exactly what we are currently seeing and what we will propagate for further applications (download here).
Advanced Trainings
In 2024, various certificate courses and seminars in the field of LC-MS, mass spectrometry, DoE and polar molecules took place in cooperation with Springer Campus (as well as Sekulab and other partners). These took place again with numerous participants in the 3x3h format both in spring (Wednesday) and in autumn (Mondays). As a successful format, we will continue these flexible seminars in 2024 and beyond (and some of them will also be offered in English).
In addition, numerous in-house training courses on non-target screening lasting several days were held in industrial, university and official laboratories in 2024. The primary interest was in professional water analysis, but other disciplines are also opening up more and more to this type of analysis, for example, the interest in the field of ‘Leachables and Extractables’ and ‘Chemical and Pharmaceutical Process Monitoring’ is currently immense and is increasingly in demand. We provide manufacturer-independent training and, if necessary, involve experts from the respective device manufacturer in the establishment; The same applies to implementation and training in data analysis and statistics.
In addition to our other training and further education concepts in-house (and within the framework of the AGBB der GdCH), 2024 saw a lot of new and sustainable information for prospective and finished CTAs and chemical laboratory technicians. For example, the AGBB of the GDCh created a training atlas for non-academic training, in which educational institutions can register and search for trainees. This became a focus of our communication in 2024 and will continue to appear in one or the other article here. Some of our activities can be read as ‘mergers’ in our own edition. At the end of 2024, Thomas Letzel stepped down as long-standing chairman of the AGBB, but will continue to support the new chairmen if necessary.
Conferences
Last year, we had booths to impart NTS knowledge at Analytica 2024 in Munich and at MWAS 2024 in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr. Fortunately, the influx and the potential for discussion was really huge. We are happy to continue like this.
We again actively participated in several scientific events. With titles such as ‘Mass Spectrometric Non-Target Screening – Interdisciplinary Solutions and Data Handling‘ at the Annual Meeting of the DGMS and the Swiss ILMAC, ‘Why and how to develop a non-targeted GC screening method‘ at the LCGC CHROMTalks broadcast 2024, ‘Modern chromatography for non-target screening applications‘ at the International Symposium on Chromatography (ISC24), and ‘Non-Target Screening Approaches in Coffee Research–Opportunities and Challenges‘ at the International Coffee Convention (ICC24), we were able to contribute to the transfer of knowledge in NTS.
A special highlight was the lecture series invitation to UC Irvine (LinkedIn post) and Oregon State University (LinkedIn post) as well as the interim stay at ASMS 24 (LinkedIn post)
All these events enabled us to learn new things in analytical chemistry, to discuss and present NTS.
NTS Contract Analyses in our ‘Augsburg Lab’
Fortunately, we were able to expand our laboratory activities again in 2024 and exploit the full potential of these devices with the NTS system purchased in 2023. Thus, with more than 3000 measurements, we were able to process many existing or new inquiries or products and thus open up topics from research, supply and disposal companies, authorities and industry.
Since 2024, we have been offering our own NTS products for the testing of food (such as coffee and juice) and packaging materials, as well as (waste) water monitoring, saline industrial water monitoring, chemical and pharmaceutical monitoring, as well as flowers and bee pollen analysis for the determination of biodiversity. Further individual analyses are possible (and this is also confidential, as we usually require).
At this point, we would like to express our special thanks to all partners and customers for their trust in our work and in the results delivered (which sometimes seem a bit nebulous at first, but become clearer with every conversation). In 2025, we will continue to exist at the usual ‘speed’ and intensity.
Partner
Last year, we continued closely with our SFC-MS, LC-MS and GC-MS partners, and we would also like to thank them on our partner page. We are looking forward to being able to support their customers in NTS together with these and other manufacturers in the coming year and, last but not least, to taking further steps into the future of non-target screening together at ICNTS 25.
Outlook
We will finish some research projects, other projects will stay and still others will start. We are looking forward to proven partners but also to new interested parties for cooperation in the establishment and individual use of instrumental analytics, not least in non-target screening, so that the topic of NTS is known and used across all disciplines.
