News
The chromatography standard was inherited from the Analytical Instrument Association (now the Analytical and Life Science Systems Association, ALSSA) in 1997 and required only a cosmetic overhaul to bring it in line with ASTM's format. Its final approval came as no surprise. Meanwhile, the mass spectrometry standard will require some massaging. Testers have discovered some inconsistencies between it and the chromatography standard, including differingfieldnames. Others reported difficulties in compiling the software required to read and report the data. As it currently stands, the standard handles only simple MS data—MS/MS instruments will have to wait for modifications in a future version, says Mark Canales, director of product development for Finnigan Corporation, who headed up the ASTM subcommittee that produced the first round of the MS standards. Like the chromatography standard, the MS standard was inherited from ALSSA. Despite the criticisms, the content really hasn't changed much, Canales maintains. "It's really an evolution of the standard rather than a replacement." Round-robin testing will continue throughout the summer, says Matthews, with instrument manufacturers receiving chromatograms and MS readouts to read and store using the chromatography and MS standards. The results won't affect the current versions, but will be used in future revisions. She expects the MS standard to be approved late this year or early in 1999. In the meantime, ASTM is frustrated by a lack of participating customers. Having been inherited from ALSSA the committees still show a heavy bias of instrument manufacturers, though ASTM would prefer a 50:50 mix. "In the past ANDI was a fairly vendor-centric initiative—customers didn't know about it. We need to get input from customers to make the standards serve the marketplace," says Matthews. McConnell concurs: "There's certainly a range of opinion of why the standards are necessary, and whether the work has gone far enough to make it useful," he says. Matthews suggests that anyone interested in participating contact ASTM. Jim Kling
Genomics company In early May, the Perkin-Elmer Corporation and J. Craig Venter, president and director of the Institute for Genomic Re448 A
search (TIGR), announced that they had signed letters of intent relating to the formation of a new genomics company. The new company will take technology from PE's Applied Biosystems Division and apply it to sequencing strategies developed at TIGR, a nonprofit research institute that has fully sequenced seven organ isms since its founding in 1992. According to a press release issued jointly, a large part of the new company's mission will be "to substantially complete the sequencing of the human genome in three years". Venter will serve as the new company's president; Tony L White, Perkin-Elmer's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, will serve as chairman; and Peter Barrett, Perkin-Elmer's vice-president of corporate planning and business develop-
ment, will serve as an executive vice president. Perkin Elmer will retain approximately 80% ownership. The company wiil be located in Rockville, MD.
HP and Caliper sign deal The lab on a chip is one large step closer to a commercial reality. In May, the HewlettPackard Company and Caliper Technologies signed an agreement to develop the first generation of analytical instrumentation based on Caliper's technology. The companies plan to invest $20 million in the next year to develop the miniaturized instruments and an additional $80 million over the next four years to further develop and to commercialize the technology.
PEOPLE
Armstrong named separations editor
from developing countries, and sixmonth scholarships are available to candidates from Eastern Europe and newly Daniel Armemerging states. The scholarships will strong, University of Missouri- fund work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), EMPA (EidgenosRolla, is the new Analytical Chem- sische Material-Prufanstalt). EAWAG (Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental istry Associate Editor for separa- Science and Technology), or the Paul Scherrer Institut. Applications should tions. He reinclude the student's topic of interest, full places Jim Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who has CV and three letters of recommendation and should be sent to World Laboratory served since 1992. Armstrong received his B.S. degree from Washington & Lee Research Centre c/o Renato Zenobi Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, University and his M.S. and Ph.D. deCHN C59 ETH Zentrum CH-8092 Zurgrees from Texas A&M University. ich Switzerland The deadline is Aug 31 Armstrong's research focuses on enantioselective molecular interactions; chiral separations; chromatographic theory polymer and protein analyses; Gold Medal Award and the use of antibiotics micelles and Alan G. Marshall, cyclodextrins in chemical analysis' Torprofessor of genson will remain the editor for anv chemistry at Flormanuscripts that began the review Droida State Univercess under his direction sity, will be presented with the New York Section of the Society Simon scholarship for Applied Spectroscopy's Gold Medal The ICSC-World Laboratory is announcing the 1998 scholarships in honor of the Award. He is being recognized for his contributions to spectroscopy, particulate Wilhelm Simon for students doing larly Fourier transform ion cyclotron respostdoctoral research in environmental and analytical chemistry. One- year schol- onance MS, a technique that he coinvented with Melvin Comisarow. arships are being offered to candidates
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, July 1, 1998
