I am involved in amino acid analysis of a particular glyco-protein,
for release testing. My efforts are in support of a validated method.
Currently our QC lab is and has been release testing based on the P/E-ABI,
PTC, derivitization and subsequent separation on c-18 R/P chromatography
system. As I perceive the story, this instrumentation is no longer being
supported and what little support there is, now, will eventually disappear
all together.
So to make a long story short, we now have in our laboratory, a
system which has Beckman's name on it, to be exact; 126AA solvent module,
166 detector, 232 post column reactor, 507 system gold autosampler and a 350
IBM Personal computer. I have been validating this system and find that it
works acceptably well, but the autosampler is something from a different
realm. I understand that Beckman makes a 508 autosampler which does not have
a column oven incorporated into it's design. Any experience with this
situation would be appreciated. Should I up-grade to the 508 and buy a
column oven, which by the way would have to be programmable to accommodate
the chromatography or should I struggle along with the current autosampler
which uses three times the actual amount of sample needed for injection.
Another option would be to switch the whole post column ninhydrin system
over to an HP1100 or a Waters Alliance system any and all constructive
comments would be appreciated.
James G. Freedy
Ortho Biotech
Raritan, N.J.