The 2nd Global COE workshop on analytical instrumentation organized by Global COE program was held in Ehime University on July 27, 2010. The workshop consisted of the lecture and practical training by Dr. Tetsuo Kokaji from AB SCIEX Japan. In the lecture, Dr. Kokaji talked about the “outline of the liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS)”. He has mainly explained the basic principles and analytical procedures for analyses of new environmental pollutants using LC/MS/MS.

The LC/MS/MS is now being widely used in environmental assessment, targeted quantitative proteomics, drug discovery, metabolomics, and food and beverage applications.

He has also explained the function and features of a new AB SCIEX Triple Quad™ 5500 system which is today’s most sensitive triple quadrupole mass spectrometer is designed to deliver high levels of sensitivity and robustness for even the most complex and demanding matrices.

In the practical training, Dr. Kokaji lectured on the preparation of MRM (multiple reaction monitoring) method and automatic optimization of the MS/MS condition using AB SCIEX Triple Quad™ 5500 system. After the preparation of MRM, he has lectured on the process of building the calibration curves based on of the analysis of sulfa drugs as an example.

This workshop was well attended by many participants including graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and COE members from Ehime University and persons from other universities. All had lively discussions during and after the lecture and experiment. In this COE program, we planned to establish sensitive analytical methods for screening environmental pollutants using LC/MS/MS. This workshop provided useful information on the analytical methods of novel environmental pollutants.