One of the most common ways Organomation dryers are used is to prepare samples ahead of GC-MS. A driving factor behind our desire to produce the best sample preparation instrumentation is to aide researchers who are completing incredibly important work in their laboratories.
GC-MS combines both gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS) to identify and quantify compounds within a sample. Samples are first vaporized and separated within a gas chromatography column. The separated compounds are then passed to a mass spectrometer where they are ionized, fragmented, and further passed along to a charged detector. This detector creates peaks based on the mass-to-charge ratio of each fragment -- the more fragment detected in the sample, the bigger the peak will be. The resulting spectra can then be compared with existing libraries of mass spectra to identify and quantify analytes. As Organomation evaporators are used in more and more labs, we continue to be impressed by the wide scope of how GC-MS is applied.
One of the researchers who was gracious enough to invite us into his lab is Patrick Jonker who is a PhD student at the University of Chicago. Patrick works in the Muir laboratory which is housed within the Ben May Department for Cancer Research at the Gordon Center for Integrative Science. The lab focuses on pancreatic cancer research, specifically tumors. Patrick and his team are working to better understand the environment around the tumor and how those factors impact the tumor's growth. By learning more about the cells, researchers hope to identify vulnerabilities. Common questions include how cells react to nutrients which can be studied by measuring metabolites and amino acids. Isolating the fluid within tumors and creating custom cell cultures are areas of focus. 
Patrick's team uses their MULTIVAP nitrogen evaporator to dry off excess methanol, dichloromethane, and hexanes from their samples which are typically concentrated in batches of 40 or more. The nitrogen dryer has improved the lab's workflow by significantly increasing their sample dry down times. They evaporate their samples at ambient temperatures taking about 1 hour to dry their methanol samples and only ~10 minutes for their dichloromethane or hexane samples.
Drying down these samples is critical prior to derivatization, which is the process of modifying an analyte to improve its separation or performance in GC. The analytes are changed slightly through a chemical reaction, usually by adding or modifying a functional group on the compound. When fewer than 40 samples are being prepared, the Muir lab team enjoys being able to turn off the nitrogen flow for the rows in the sample block which are empty.
Patrick noted that the blowdown evaporator is super helpful to them and that "everyone who uses it, loves it". This is proven out by the fact that four other lab groups within the building also come by to use the MULTIVAP to dry down samples.
To learn more about how our sample preparation equipment is used for different applications, please visit our website at www.organomation.com and check out our case studies page. For any questions, contact our sales team using the form below, or email us at sales@organomation.com.
Last updated: August 2, 2024