Expert Insight: Don’t Risk the Quality and Reproducibility of Your Results: Webinar Highlights

In a recent SelectScience webinar, third of a five-part webinar series delivered in partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific, we were joined by Dr. Detlev Lennartz to discuss methods to help optimize your mass spectrometry and small molecule workflows, as well as tools to improve reproducibility and reliability of results. 

Reproducibility is the cornerstone of the scientific method, and painstaking research is often time-consuming. The pressures of modern science require not only precision, but efficient and accelerated workflows. This new webinar explores the benefits of well plate platforms, which include multi-pipette usage, less space consumption compared to racks with vials, easy sample transfer from bio-robots, and automated sample preparation. Learn about tools and ideas for a successful and easy transfer from your current sample handling container (e.g. 2mL autosampler glass vials) to well plates, ensuring reproducibility in your results. Discover the range of 96- and 384- well plates offered by Thermo Fisher Scientific for complex and routine analyses (UHPLC, LC and GC) in high-throughput screening laboratories, with software support to help you choose the equipment for your needs. 

You can catch the webinar on demand here, or read on to discover the Q&A highlights from the live event.

Q: What if the result varies significantly after using plastic instead of glass?

A: Yes, this is a key question. The transfer of your analytical challenge and all your analysis and your workflows from glass vial to plastic container always brings with it the risk that something that could go wrong, because the glass surface is a polar surface and the plastic surface is a non-polar surface. So, if the molecule that you are analyzing reacts significantly differently with either one of these surfaces, you might face significant loss of sample due to wall adsorption effects. Let's take this as an example: during an experiment, you switch from a glass vial to a plastic container and you see a reduction of your product by 25-30% — you know there has been an unwanted interaction and you're not happy to lose sample just by changing the sample handling container.
In this situation, I can only make a recommendation: switch to a glass-coated plastic plate in order to retain a polar surface, even on a plastic well plate — this should include all plates, plus the sample handling bottle. Or, you switch to a glass insert in the well plate. That way you can enjoy the benefits of this 96-well plate platform and the handling advantage, but by using a glass vial or glass insert in the well plate, you have exactly the same environment surface and polarity-wise as you would have in a glass vial. 

Find out more on this topic from Dr. Lennartz by watching the full webinar on demand>>

SelectScience runs 3-4 webinars a month across various scientific topics, discover more of our upcoming webinars>>