New Partnership Between UA and Agilent Technologies Focuses on Emerging Waterborne Contaminants
A technology leader in chemical analysis has joined talents with one of the leading water contamination experts to greatly improve the processes and accuracy of waterborne contaminant detection.
An agreement between California-based Agilent Technologies Inc., Shane Snyder of the University of Arizona department of chemical and environmental engineering, and the UA's BIO5 Institute is expected to advance current detection methods for emerging waterborne contaminants. The resulting improvements to this level of contaminant detection capability will provide guidance for future engineered water use and reuse strategies, increasing protection of public health and the environment.
"Not only will we investigate known potential threats to water quality, we'll bridge the gap between detection and health effects with the development of original methodologies designed to screen water for toxicity from multiple compounds, using similar action,” Snyder said.
The Agilent partnership allows the University of Arizona to expand its role influencing water reuse and desalination strategies by providing assurance that the required water quality has been achieved for its intended use, says Snyder. The concept of addressing contaminants in potable water as mixtures, as opposed to focusing solely on individual chemicals, is of great interest to the regulatory, scientific and public health communities.
The collaboration also provides the UA and BIO5 with unique analytical capabilities. Nearly any imaginable trace organic and inorganic contaminant can be detected and analyzed by the new Snyder lab, allowing for an ultra-comprehensive analysis of water, including the development of chemical signatures unique to a particular water source.
Two instrument combinations in the Snyder lab stand out as leading technology for improving the chemical analysis of water: The LC/Q-TOF, which is an Agilent 1290 Liquid Chromatograph combined with a 6530 Quadrupole Time-of-Flight detector. The combination of these two highly sensitive detection instruments provides clear structural clarification and target identification of contaminants, Agilent says.
The second instrument set is the 7000 Series GC/MS Triple Quadrupole System, which maintains a high sensitivity and selectivity of contaminants even within dirty samples and other demanding sample environments. "This system will allow for the quantitation of extremely low levels of contaminants in water samples in Dr. Snyder’s laboratory," says Linda Schanz, commercialization manager with Agilent Technologies' Chemical Analysis Group.
The lab's contaminant detection capability -- added to the already renowned water research facilities at the University of Arizona -- will be used for engineering that improves water quality.
"This collaboration will allow us to share applications developed by Dr. Snyder’s group in the area of water use and reuse with other researchers," said Joe Weitzel, Agilent Technologies' global environmental manager. "Agilent is committed to driving research that will ultimately benefit environmental and public health, and there is no better partner to achieve this goal than Dr. Snyder."
The collaboration will be centered at the BIO5 Institute on the UA campus, where the infrastructure for cross-cutting work combining biological and chemical research already exists.