Forensic Science

Teach Me in 10

This instalment of Teach Me in 10 features [url][link]https://aru.ac.uk/people/lorna-nisbet[/link][name]Dr Lorna Nisbet[/name][/url], a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. Lorna’s research interests are within the field of forensic toxicology where she specializes in the detection of new psychoactive substances that have been chemically altered to produce new types of high. She speaks candidly on prison population drug outbreaks and how her work develops ways to detect the new psychoactive substances you may in this environment and within hospital admissions. Watch Lorna’s Teach Me in 10 to discover how she is able to discover new psychoactive substances in the population and how her work links to the detection of new psychoactive substances reported to the EU each year.

Detecting Psychoactive Substances in Forensic Toxicology

Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry Solutions

Just when you thought it couldn’t be done, the Thermo Scientific Neoma MC-ICP-MS raises the bar. It creates higher precision for the same sample size. Less material is required for analysis, so less time is spent on selecting the foraminifera, and you can look at other sea floor records that contain very low amounts of specific foraminifera species.

Climate Change Research with Neoma MC-ICP-MS

For scientists whose research requires high-precision isotope ratio data in fields of cosmo- and geochemistry, geochronology and biology, nuclear safeguards, forensics, metalomics, and provenance studies, we have created a new multicollector ICP-MS. Designed and developed in Bremen, building on the strengths of our multi-collector platform with field-proven technologies such as RPQ, 10^13 ohm Amplifier Technology and Jet Interface.

Making of Neoma MC-ICP-MS

Analytical Cannabis 

Speaking at the Analytical Cannabis Expo East Online 2020 in October , Dr Holly Johnson, Chief Science Officer of American Herbal Products Association and Dr Nandu Sarma, Director, of Dietary Supplements and Herbal Medicines
US Pharmacopeia presented an update on hemp quality standards.

Hemp and hemp-extract based ingredients are increasingly being introduced in dietary supplements, and in food and beverage products.  Products marketed as dietary supplements are required to comply with the cGMP (21CFR111) expectation of quality attributes. For hemp, this may include 1) laboratory verification of identity, including a limit to THC content as required by regulation; 2) quantitative composition and limits of naturally-occurring cannabinoids; and 3) tests to help ensure minimal exposure to contaminants such as pathogenic microorganisms, toxic elemental contaminants, mycotoxins, residual solvents and pesticide residues.  Testing laboratories need scientifically valid fit-for-purpose procedures among the numerous methods for hemp analysis published in the scientific literature. Establishing public standards as quality controls will help mitigate public health risks associated with contaminated, substandard, or adulterated products.
Science-based standards development organizations, the United States Pharmacopeia and AOAC International, have formed volunteer expert committees to evaluate the specifications and test methods necessary to define cannabis and hemp quality attributes based on plant parts and preparations. In this session, representatives from the USP and AOAC will describe the work of each organization and how they complement to contribute to the quality of hemp and hemp extracts.

Hemp Quality Standards: Perspectives and Resources from USP & AOAC

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Molecular Biology

Invitrogen E-Gel Precast Agarose Gels enable fast and sensitive analysis of DNA and RNA samples. Minimize time-consuming and messy prep work, running up to twice as fast as conventional handcast gels. E-Gel Precast Agarose Gels are available in a variety of agarose percentages, well formats, and throughput capacities to suit your applications.

Save Time with Invitrogen E-Gel Precast Agarose Gels

FRITSCH Milling and Sizing

See how you can effectively combine our Particle Sizers ANALYSETTE 22 NeXT for the measurement of particle size and the ANALYSETTE 28 for Dynamic Image Analysis.<br>[url][link] https://www.fritsch-international.com/particle-sizing/overview// [/link][name] High-Tech Particle Sizing [/name][/url]

Using Image Analysis to verify Laser Diffraction Results

Custom Videos from Technology Networks

Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) is a well-established technique that provides sensitive, accurate, and precise measurements of the concentration of elements across a range of applications.

However, as with any technique, errors can occur during sample preparation and measurement, or as a result of operational issues with the instrument.

Watch this video to find out more about how ICP-OES works, some of the common challenges faced and choosing the right instrument for your needs.

How To Prevent Common ICP-OES Instrument Problems

With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill legalizing hemp and different US states legalizing Cannabis products, farmers are allowed to grow cannabis and hemp. Like any other agricultural crop, pesticides are applied to cannabis and hemp plants to protect it from pests and improve growth yield. Chronic exposure to pesticides can lead to serious health risks and therefore pesticide analysis in Cannabis and hemp is important for consumer safety and quality control. Among all of states in USA, California has issued most stringent action limits for 66 pesticides residues in cannabis flower, cannabis infused edibles, concentrates and hemp.  Normally pesticide analysis in cannabis and other food matrices is done by both GCMSMS and LCMSMS since some nonpolar and chlorinated pesticides such as pentachloronitrobenzene, chlordane and others are difficult to ionize with electrospray source used in LCMSMS systems.   We would demonstrate how we measured these compounds at low levels using LCMSMS with APCI source. The ionization mechanism of chlorinated pesticides such as pentachloronitrobenzene and others using LCMSMS system with APCI source would be presented. We analyzed all of 66 pesticides (including very hydrophobic and chlorinated pesticides typically analyzed by GCMSMS) spiked in  hemp and cannabis samples  well below the action limits specified by California State. Hemp and cannabis matrix is challenging and therefore it causes ion suppression and matrix inference for response of some of pesticides. We would demonstrate approaches to mitigate these matrix effects from cannabis and hemp. Sample preparation is the main bottleneck for achieving the high throughput analysis of pesticides in cannabis/hemp testing labs. For sample preparation, we used solvent extraction since it is a quick, cheap and easy way to achieve high extraction recovery in comparison to other time-consuming sample preparation techniques like solid phase extraction (SPE) and QuEChERS. Also, the performance of LC-MS/MS method was checked by conducting blind emerald scientific’s proficiency test for 66 pesticides in hemp. The proficiency test report generated with LCMSMS method showed acceptable results for all of 66 pesticides in hemp with no false positives and negatives.

Overcoming Challenges associated with analysis of all of pesticides regulated by California

Real-time PCR is the method of choice for contemporary microbiological quality analysis of cannabis products. Its reliability is already proven for many years for analysis of food products and beverages, outcompeting traditional culture in both specificity and sensitivity. With the ever increasing amount of cannabis-infused products on the market, BIOTECON Diagnostics as long standing partner in the food safety diagnostic industry can bring all its experience to the market. 
 Matrices in Cannabis and Cannabis-infused products can range from pure plant materials with lots of secondary metabolites to highly processed products, such as gummy bears and brownies. The sheer variety of matrices are challenging to come by, especially in regards to sample preparation and DNA extraction in many labs. The efficient removal of dead cell background, where necessary, and PCR-inhibitors during extraction is what sets BIOTECON’s extraction apart. As a leader in viability PCR, BIOTECON’s Reagent D eliminates dead microbes from the PCR, enabling results that perfectly match traditional culture.
With over 20 years of experience in real-time PCR analysis, BIOTECON Diagnostics has assembled a portfolio of open-platform cannabis testing solutions combining highest sensitivity, specificity, speed and convenience that perfectly fits the needs of any lab. This includes our unique foodproof Yeast and Mold Quantification LyoKit and our brand new multiplex kit for Aspergillus detection and identification. 
With its long standing history and experience in real-time PCR based kits, BIOTECON Diagnostics is a pioneer and a premier partner to support clients in the Cannabis industry to ensure product safety.

Forensic Science

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