Stable Isotope Analysis Laboratory

2012 Student Awards and SIMSUG

2011-11-21T17:08:00.001Z

This week I'll be attending the Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry User Group (SIMSUG) meeting at Lancaster University:

SIMSUG 2011, Lancaster University, 23rd and 24th November 2011

To coincide with the meeting we are announcing our 2012 Student Research Awards competition. Hopefully, I will get to meet some of our customers in Lancaster but you don't have to be at the meeting to enter the competition as the details are below.

The closing date for entries is 31st January 2012. Good luck to everyone that applies.

Steve Brookes

2012 Student Research Awards

Iso-Analytical provides research awards to encourage students to include stable isotope analyses in their research projects, with emphasis on the use of stable isotopes to explain original research questions.

Iso-Analytical is offering a total prize fund of $5000 towards stable isotope analysis from our catalogue of analytical services for d2H, d13C, d15N, d18O and d34S.

Gold Award : $3000 (approx. 75 sample analyses)

Grant of $3000 (2250€*) towards cost of stable isotope analyses available to students engaged in research at an accredited academic institute.

Silver Award : $2000 (approx. 50 sample analyses)

Grant of US $2000 (1500€*) towards cost of stable isotope analyses available to students engaged in research at an accredited academic institute.

* Based on current exchange rates

How to Apply

The research awards are competitive and will be offered based on the evaluation of applications consisting of an abstract and 300 word summary paper. Applications should concisely describe the research project, the information likely to be gained from isotope analysis, and the availability of materials for analysis. Applications will be accepted by post, fax or Email.

The deadline for receipt of applications is January 31, 2012

Applications should be e-mailed to:

steve@iso-analytical.com with “Research Awards 2012” in the subject line

Competition Rules

(1) Applicants must be enrolled in post-graduate or post-doctoral research at an academic institute.
(2) Applications must include applicants name, address, telephone number, e-mail and academic qualifications and supervisor’s name and address.
(3) The prizes will consist of stable isotope analyses of d2H, d13C, d15N, d18O or d34S, or combination thereof, to the value of $3000 and $2000 for the Gold and Silver awards respectively.
(4) Samples must be submitted by the competition winners to Iso-Analytical for analysis before March 31, 2013. Iso-Analytical will report results to competition winners within 3 months of receiving samples.
(5) Research awards will be acknowledged in any thesis or subsequent publications, copies of which will be provided to Iso-Analytical.
(6) The winners will be notified by March 31, 2012.

Recent Published Articles

2011-10-03T16:18:00.001Z

We're always pleased to see the fruits of our customers' work. Here are some references of published journal articles that we've recently received:

‘Differences in food assimilation between two coot species assessed with stable isotopes and particle size in faeces: Linking physiology and conservation.’
Amat Juan A, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A (2008), 217-223

‘Sulphur stable isotopes can distinguish trophic dependence on sediments and plankton in boreal lakes.’
Crosietere Louis et al, Freshwater Biology (2009), 54, 1006-1015

‘Unravelling complexities in benthic food webs using a dual stable isotope (hydrogen and carbon) approach.’
Deines Peter et al, Freshwater Biology (2009), 54, 2243-2251

‘Beef authentication and retrospective dietary variation using stable isotope ratio analysis of bovine muscle and tail hair.’
Osorio, M Teresa et al, J. Agric Food Chem (2011), 59, 3295-3305

‘Multielement isotope analysis of bovine muscle for determination of International Geographical Origin of Meat.’
Osorio, M Teresa et al, J. Agric Food Chem (2011), 59, 3285-3294

‘Greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus are partial capital breeders.’
Rendon Miguel A et al, J. Avian Biol. (2011), 42, 210-213

There is also a list of earlier published articles on our website.

Student Placements During the Summer

2011-09-27T14:10:00.000Z

This June we welcomed one of our customers to the lab to gain first hand experience of stable isotope analysis. Dr Irene Maier recently took up a post doctoral position in the Quaternary Geology and Climate unit of the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU), Trondheim. Under the direction of Dr Jochen Knies, Irene is being supported by an EU Marie Curie award to work on their Changing Arctic and Sub-Arctic project.

During her visit to the laboratory Irene gained practical experience of preparing marine sediments for carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. This involved; decarbonating the sediments in preparation for organic carbon isotope analysis, removal of organic nitrogen from the sediments and preparation of the different sediment fractions for analysis on the mass spectrometer systems. By doing this, Irene now has an understanding of the processes involved in stable isotope analysis which should come in useful when she receives data for future samples that we will be measuring for NGU.

Irene preparing samples at one of the laboratory balances (above) and learning how to operate one of the isotope ratio mass spectrometers (below)

In July we were joined by a second student for a summer placement. This time it was Charlotte who had just completed the first year of her degree course in environmental sciences at Manchester University. Charlotte spent a couple of weeks with us gaining practical experience of common laboratory techniques which included; centrifuging, pipetting, ion-exchange chromatography and using 5 place balances to weigh and prepare samples in tin capsules ready for isotope analysis.

The Lab continues to be very busy

2011-07-01T14:18:00.002Z

It was around this time last year that we started to see an increase in the demand for analysis of samples. That demand has remained in place and I can safely say that our lab has never been busier. This is good news and not so good news. Good news because it is very encouraging to see that so many of you are increasing the amount of research that you are using stable isotopes for. The not so good news is that the increased number of samples that we have been receiving has meant that the lead time for analysis has increased for most sample types.

In order to meet the increased demand, we did two things in the first quarter of this year. First off, we re-furbished and upgraded one of the mass spectrometers that was under-utilized. This has given us extra capacity for high temperature continuous flow - IRMS and extra capacity for deuterium measurements. Secondly, we recruited another person for the technical support staff, Joanna Bruce. Joanna has already been trained up to prepare samples and is now doing so on a day to day basis alongside the rest of the team (Anne, Margaret and Sharon).

Even with this extra capacity in place the lead times for analysis are still longer than they used to be and what we would like them to be. We apologize to you for that but would also like to thank all of our customers for your patience. All samples that arrive at our facility are logged in, in the order that they are received and join the queue behind orders that have already arrived. We think and hope that this is the fairest way for all of our customers.

It is good to know that people are willing to wait a bit longer because of the quality of the service that we provide.

Row for Heroes

2010-05-20T13:09:00.002Z

On Wednesday 12th May 2010, two Army Doctors, Nick Dennison and Hamish Reid, set out to Row around Great Britain in order to raise money for Help for Heroes and the Army Benevolent Fund. In doing so they will enter the record books by being the first pair to complete this Herculean task.

The charity rowers wanted to monitor their energy expenditure during the challenge. So we at Iso-Analytical volunteered to help out by providing them with a doubly labelled water kit which they could use during the trip. The kit consisted of doubly labelled water drinks, collection containers for urine samples and everything needed to keep records of the sampling times:

On their return we will measure the two sets of urine samples that they will have collected from two study periods. Measuring the differential loss of deuterium from the body (only lost as water) and oxygen-18 (lost as water and carbon dioxide) allows us to calculate their total energy expenditure over study periods as long as two weeks. We're expecting Nick and Hamish's energy expenditures to be somewhat higher than normal!

To find out more about the challenge, track their progress and the charity they are supporting, please visit their website: Row for Heroes

Iso-Analytical Student Award Provides a First for Deuterium Analysis

2010-03-25T11:44:00.003Z

Unravelling complexities in benthic food webs using a dual stable isotope (hydrogen and carbon) approach.

Peter Deines, Matthew J. Wooller and Jonathan Grey, Freshwater Biology (2009) 54, 2243-2251.

In the journal article above the authors provide preliminary evidence to suggest that hydrogen and carbon isotope values in macroinvertebrates may be used to distinguish between methane formation pathways and help to explain inter-depth and inter-specific differences between co-existing chironomid species found in the same lake.

Peter Deines of the Max Planck Institute for Limnology, Plon, Germany used his Iso-Analytical Student award to send samples to our laboratory for analysis. Samples of chironomid larvae collected from German lakes were measured for their deuterium abundance. As far as the authors are aware this is the first study to use deuterium as a second biochemical marker in combination with carbon-13 (measured in their own laboratory), to unravel linkages between microbial fauna in sediment and macroinvertebrate consumers.

SIMSUG 2010

2010-03-19T16:04:00.002Z

28th to 30th April 2010, University of Exeter

The annual meeting of the Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometer Users Group (SIMSUG) presents an ideal opportunity to share our experiences of analysing stable isotopes both formally and informally. Registration for the meeting and accomodation and submission of abstracts is now open. More details can be found on the SIMSUG website which can be accessed at the link below:

SIMSUG 2010

Iso-Analytical are one of the sponsors of the meeting and will be in attendance throughout. I look forward to meeting new and existing customers and catching up with colleagues and friends I have met in the 30+ years I have been involved in research with stable isotopes.

Steve Brookes

Inter-laboratory Testing - Honey

2010-02-09T17:11:00.005Z

Food analysis using Isotopic Techniques - Proficiency Testing Scheme.

Results of carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 analysis of Honey undertaken in the first round of 2008 are shown below. The Z-scores (see explanation below the charts) show that the participating laboratories were in good agreement with each other and our own Z scores are comfortably in the desired range.

The evaluation of data is performed according to the ISO/IUPAC/AOAC International Harmonised Protocol for Proficiency Testing of analytical laboratories. Individual laboratories results are expressed as Z-scores:

Z = (x-X)/s

Where :
x is the reported result from the participating laboratory.
X is the assigned or "true" value for the analyte being determined. In this exercise the assigned values are taken as the robust mean of all reported results.
s is the target value for standard deviation. In this exercise the target SD values are derived from recently reported collaborative trial results or from the robust standard deviation of all reported values.

If X and s are good estimates of the population mean and standard deviation, and the underlying distributions are normal, Z is normally distributed with a mean of zero and unit standard deviation.

Almost one year on

2009-11-24T17:09:00.004Z

It's hard to believe that it will soon be a year since we moved into the new laboratory here in Crewe. All of the initial teething troubles are now out of the way and I'm glad to say that we're now settled for the years to come. All areas of the new building are now a lot more organised, leaving us free to concentrate on the day to day analysis of the samples you send us.

The building now has our name above the door:

The main instrument area is fully functional:

So too is the sample preparation area:

We have a new technician, Sharon Hinett, working on the team:

And the office areas are a much better place to work in:

There is plenty of space for storage of standards, spares and our (your) sample archive:

Thank You for Your Patience

2009-04-20T07:49:00.002Z

I am please to say that we are well and truly settled in our new laboratory and offices and back up to speed with all of our normal services. The move cost us at least a month of analysis time which immediately impacted on the turnaround of results. So at the current time all orders are running behind the normal schedule. We must have a lot of busy customers out there because the backlog caused by the move has been compounded by an extraordinary influx of samples this year. We're currently running the instruments 7 days to keep up with the demand and have just taken on a new technician to help with sample preparation.

I would like to thank all of our customers for their patience at this time while we try to get to their samples, which are being analysed in the order in which they are received.

While our website and e-mail addresses have not been affected by the move, it was necessary to get new telephone numbers. These are now:

Tel: +44 (0)1270 509533
Fax: +44 (0)1270 509511

Steve Brookes

New Year, New Laboratory

2009-01-26T22:50:00.004Z

As we entered our Tenth year of providing stable isotope analysis we took a big decision to move out of our leased home in to a purpose built facility. As of today, 26th January 2009, Iso-Analytical's new home is:

Iso-Analytical Ltd
Unit D, Phase 3, The Quantum
Marshfield Bank Business Park
Crewe
Cheshire
CW2 8UY
United Kingdom

The planning started back in July of last year when we found a new building development close to where we were currently located. However, ready built stable isotope analysis laboratories don't really exist so we had to set about designing the layout of the building so that it would fulfill our current and future needs. This meant fitting in many visits to the new site to check progress in between analysing our customers samples. By December 2008 the building started to take shape as shown by the photos below:

Now one week into the move, everything from the old lab is in and we're ready to start re-commissioning the instruments. With five instruments to move and all the associated sample preparation equipment (not to mention the office and IT equipment) this has been a major task. However, with twice the floor area of the previous premises we should be good for the next 20 years. The photos below show just what sort of chaos is involved with moving a stable isotope laboratory!

Isolytix - New Agent for New Zealand and Australia

2008-12-22T22:41:00.003Z

We are pleased to announce that Ken Neal (Isolytix Ltd, Dunedin, New Zealand) has been appointed as our agent for Australia and New Zealand. We have known and worked with Ken for many years. He has been working in the field of Analytical Chemistry for 20 years since graduating from Sunderland Polytechnic ( now university) with a BSc (hons) in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Previously he has worked in Industry, the health service, academia and private laboratory settings

Ken has been in the field of stable isotopes for the last 10 years starting with four years at Oxford University, then to laboratory manager at Bradford University stable isotope facility before heading to New Zealand where Ken worked at the Institute of geological and Nuclear Sciences before becoming laboratory manager at Isotrace, a private light stable isotope laboratory in Dunedin.

Ken has now started his own company, Isolytix Ltd which is based in Dunedin , New Zealand. This new venture will benefit both companies and its customers by providing a link between Iso-Analytical Ltd and those requiring stable isotope services in the Southern hemisphere. Isolytix will be able to ensure that samples reach Iso-Analytical on time with the minimum of fuss, track their progress during the analysis, report the results back to you and take care of all the associated administration and paperwork.

Contact details for Isolytix Ltd are:

Ken Neal
Director
Isolytix
Dunedin
New Zealand
www.isolytix.com

+64 021 824388

2007 Inter Laboratory Comparisons

2008-04-02T14:44:00.004Z

As part of our quality system we participate in inter laboratory comparisons. One such scheme is the 'Food analysis using Isotopic Techniques - Proficiency Testing Scheme'. The first sample we analysed in 2007 was a wheat flour which required measurement of both carbon-13 and nitrogen-15. The charts below show the 'Z scores' of each laboratory. Essentially the Z score indicates how close a laboratory came to achieving the 'robust mean value' (excludes outliers) during the test. The closer your value is to zero, the closer you were to the robust mean. Laboratories with a Z score near to zero are near the middle of the chart.

Our Z score was close to zero for both the carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 measurements. Our position in the chart is highlighted by the red block (we are identified as lab1 for this study)

Later in 2007 we were involved in an inter laboratory comparison for the measurement of carbon-13 in honey. The requirement here was to measure the carbon-13 signature of the honey as a whole and to measure the carbon-13 of protein that we were required to extract from it. This is exactly the same as the 'carbon-13 honey test' that we provide clients with on a regular basis.

Again Iso-Analytical achieved close to zero Z scores which are identified by the red blocks in the charts below but this time we were allocated the code of lab2.

The excellent Z scores we achieved in these tests are testament to both the accuracy of our analytical methods and the laboratory standards we use during the analyses.

Where are we?

2008-01-06T18:42:00.000Z

When you send your samples off to us for analysis and have written our address on the parcel, have you ever wondered out of curiosity where the samples actually end up? Well, if you load up 'Google maps' and type in 'Iso-Analytical' you will be able to see where exactly our lab is based.

Happy New Year to all of our customers old and new.

Isotope Investigation of Retail Beef

2007-09-12T14:57:00.000Z

Iso-Analytical has been working for a number of years in collaboration with Dr. Olaf Schmidt and colleagues from University College Dublin in isotopic investigation of beef with a view to the authentication of Irish beef. The first publication resulting from this work: Inferring the origin and dietary history of beef from C, N and S stable isotope ratio analysis. Food Chemistry (2005) 91:545-549 compared beef reared in the USA, Brazil, Europe and Ireland. A second publication on the seasonal variation of ¹³C, ¹⁵N and ³⁴S in organic and conventional Irish beef is currently in press. In August, Bahar et al. gave a poster presentation on the rate of dietary carbon and nitrogen incorporation into bovine muscle at the 58th Annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production. We have made a copy of the poster available for download in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format here (1.9 MB).

Example Laboratory Reports

2007-09-05T14:31:00.000Z

We have made a selection of example laboratory reports available for download in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format from our website. Currently you will find example reports for the following services available:

¹³C-Urea Breath testing for detection of Helicobacter pylori infection
¹³C and ¹⁵N (dual isotope) analysis of Animal Tissue samples for ecological profiling
¹³C and ¹⁵N (dual isotope) analysis of Bone Collagen samples for dietary reconstruction
Deuterium (²H) analysis of core waters for Deuterium Tracing of core invasion
Doubly Labelled Water (DLW - ²H and ¹⁸O) analysis for measurement of Total Body Water composition
Fruit Juice carbon-13 testing for detection of undeclared addition of corn syrup
Honey carbon-13 testing (SCIRA & ISCIRA) for detection of economic adulteration

These example reports highlight our quality control procedures and the strong emphasis we place on the presentation of results.

Analytical Service vs 'In House' Facility

2007-08-23T19:05:00.000Z

It has often been mentioned to me by researchers that a project that generates somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 samples would cost about the same to send them to us for analysis, as it would to purchase their own IRMS system (about $200,000). That is true. However, it is worth thinking a little deeper before spending that hard earned research grant money on your own mass spectrometer.

Other Costs

A new IRMS costs money to run. First the correct environment needs to be put in place which means a good clean power supply, temperature control (usually air conditioning), plenty of space to allow all round access to the equipment and high purity helium, oxygen and probably reference gases on tap. High quality consumables (quartz glassware, various chemical packings, combustion boats/cups) have to bought from specialist suppliers and are used in the analysis of each and every sample and reference material. While some reference materials can be bought in, it is necessary to set up at some cost a wide range of reliable, traceable working laboratory standards that need to be used on a daily basis. The equipment needs to be serviced which often means taking out an annual service contract with the manufacturer. Finally and probably most importantly there is the cost of the technician to prepare the samples (including any pre-analysis work up) run and maintain the instrument and analyze the data to check that it is both good and true. Despite the best efforts of IRMS manufacturers, the instruments today are still a long way from being (and probably never will be) black box technology so the right operator is of paramount importance.

Getting the best out of the instrument

Mass spectrometers, especially the isotope ratio variety, break down quite a lot. While service contracts are designed to help the user, the response time for an engineer to visit may be quite slow compared to more common scientific instruments. This is quite normal for a 'specialist' instruments because there are only a few 'specialist' engineers to go round. Quite often they have to visit you direct from the factory and therefore the further your lab is away from the factory, the longer the response time will be. In order to minimize instrument down time it is best if you can diagnose and fix the common failures yourself and this also means having access to some testing equipment and a stock of some expensive spare parts. While a single instrument can be fitted with a variety of sample preparation interfaces e.g. elemental analyser, gas handling device, dual-inlet and GC combustion interface, this in itself can lead to instrument down time. Switching from one interface to another often involves some manual work, connections have to be checked for leaks and there is always a 'settling' time while you wait for the new set up to become stable. Even apparently simple procedures of changing the elemental analyser from analysing one isotope to another, can lead to one or more days of downtime and the waste of expensive consumables if there are only a few samples that require a particular isotope measured.

Using an Analytical Service instead

The service we provide removes all of the above worries ensuring that you get your data on time and that the grant money is spent on publishing those results rather than buying an expensive piece of equipment. The key to providing this is our ability to keep the equipment running and having the facility to run different samples for different isotopes on five dedicated IRMS systems. Not to mention that the analysis is done by highly experienced operators and support staff that know how to deal with many different types of sample and how to obtain the best results for each. With the discount we provide for academic research and the potential for sending samples in part-state of readiness (e.g. pre-capsulated), you may be suprised just how far your research grant might stretch.

Steve Brookes

Mini Fractionation of Crude Oil

2007-08-22T15:01:00.000Z

Analysis of crude oils is often undertaken to evaluate source rocks and their depositional environments. Carbon isotope analysis of the saturate and aromatic fractions of the oil as part of the testing process, is used to identify if the oil is of terrestrial or marine origin.

The carbon isotope analysis requires less than a milligram of each fraction for analysis so in our lab we use a 'mini fractionation' procedure to prepare the two fractions. This involves using a glass pasteur pipette as column to hold a bed of activated silica gel. A few microlitres of the crude oil sample is placed on top of the bed and the saturate fraction eluted with with hexane (picture on left). Once all the saturates have been washed through, the aromatics are eluted with toluene (picture on right). Each fraction is then blown dry under nitrogen and are then analysed on one of the EA-IRMS systems.

This simple and robust procedure for obtaining carbon-13 data that can be used to identify the source of the crude oil was developed in collaboration with one of our clients, Dr Matthew Kaye of OceanGrove Geoscience Ltd.

New Water Isotope Standards

2007-08-20T14:26:00.000Z

Over recent months we have prepared and calibrated a new set of working laboratory water standards and are making them available for sale to others that have a need for them. The deuterium and oxygen-18 abundances of the standards have been measured against (and are therefore traceable to) the new V-SMOW2 and SLAP2 international reference waters that are distributed by the IAEA. Each standard was subjected to our full calibration procedure which involves analysis of multiple replicates over a number of days.

The set of 5 standards covers a broad range of water isotope abundances making them suitable as working references for both natural and tracer studies. Details of the five standards are and their delta values vs V-SMOW2/SLAP2 in permil notation are (2H value, 18O value):

IA-R052 (low abundance natural water) -157.12, -19.64
IA-R053 (mid abundance natural water) -61.97, -10.18
IA-R054 (zero abundance natural water) +4.93, +0.56
IA-R055 (mid abundance enriched water) +843.43, +108.59
IA-R056 (high abundance enriched water) +1701.83, +266.83

Each standard is provided in a 30 mL re-useable robust glass bottle (although we advise removing aliquots to prevent accidental contamination) and is accompanied by a 'report of analysis'. Although we have prepared large quantities of each, customers will be limited to purchasing 5 bottles of each standard. Customers that need to set up large quantities of working laboratory standards may wish to consider using our 'Standards calibration service' as an alternative.

Report on SIMSUG 2007

2007-07-09T11:17:00.000Z

My Thoughts on Simsug 2007 by Tanith Allwood

Newcastle University was the host for a well-attended SIMSUG meeting this year. There were a broad range of very interesting talks, with Simon Jennings (CEFAS) starting the proceedings as the Keynote speaker for the first day. Simon Jennings’ presentation on the use of Stable Isotopes in Food Web Analysis impressed many people with the sheer scale of his sample collection- he analysed several thousand samples and Iso-Analytical Ltd conducted most of the analyses. There were several presenters who had used Iso-Analytical Ltd for their analyses and it was good to be able to put faces to the names of the clients we’ve been working with and to be able to see where our work is going and what it is being used for. It was also interesting to see the advances in the methodology of IRMS, particularly the growing use of Compound Specific analysis and to see how people are using the techniques now and future applications and techniques. All in all it was a very interesting and very useful conference.

Profile of Tanith Allwood

2007-07-09T10:47:00.001Z

Tanith Allwood BSc (Hons) - Analyst

Tanith started working part time for Iso-Analytical in late 2003 while studying for her degree in Geography and Geology at Manchester University. After graduating with honours in 2005 she became a full time analyst with us.

In a relatively short period of time Tanith has become involved in all aspects of stable isotope analyis, from sample preparation through to operation of the mass spectrometers.

Fifth IRMS System Commissioned

2007-06-14T11:11:00.000Z

In order to keep up with the demand for analyses our IRMS system count rose to 5 last month. The new system was obtained from SerCon Limited and complements the other 4 systems.

Back in 2000 our first instrument had to be used to analyse all of the stable isotopes in lots of different sample types. Over time we have developed the analytical facility so that instruments are dedicated to particular isotopes and types of sample. This has enabled us to cope with 15,000+ samples we receive each year so that they are turned around in good time. Our facility is now made up of:

System 1 : Deuterium and oxygen-18 in water (equilibration) and solids (high temperature conversion)

System 2: Carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 in solids (EA-IRMS)

System 3: Carbon-13 in gases, carbonate isotopes and overflow for system 2

System 4: Sulphur-34 in solids (EA-IRMS)

System 5: Overflow for systems 2 and 4.

Meet the Support Staff

2007-06-14T08:22:00.000Z

Margaret Anderson (left) - Technician

Anne Bruce (middle) - Technician

Tina Ringrose (right) - Administration

Tina, Anne and Margaret are three of the key elements in getting your samples analysed. Many will know Tina through e-mail and phone contact as one of her roles is to log in your samples when they arrive at the lab.

Anne and Margaret are the ones that supply the care and attention that is required to prepare your samples for analysis on the instruments.

Profile of Ian Begley

2007-06-13T15:45:00.000Z

Ian Begley BSc (Hon) PhD – R&D Manager

Born: 1968
Nationality: British

He has been active in the development of methods for isotope analysis by mass spectrometry since 1991. Prior to co-founding Iso-Analytical Limited he held the position of Research Scientist with isotope ratio mass spectrometer manufacturer, PDZ Europa Ltd, with responsibility for application, method and instrument development. He is well known to the isotope community having made presentations at many scientific conferences and had seven scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

He trained as an Analytical Chemist, being awarded a BSc with first class honours in Chemistry with Information Technology and Instrumentation from Glasgow Caledonian University in 1991. After that he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Loughborough University in 1996, for a thesis on "The application of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to isotope ratio measurement."

He was employed as Research Chemist in the Stable Isotope and Mass Spectrometry group at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), 1994-1998. Contributing to making SCRI a centre of excellence for use of stable isotopes in agriculture by development of automated methods for isotope analysis of hydrogen and oxygen. Previously he worked as a Chemist with Smithkline-Beecham, and the Ministry of Defence, and as a consultant to British Gas, and mass spectrometer manufacturers, VG Elemental.

Main responsibilities in Iso-Analytical: Analysis, technical development.

Profile of Charles Belanger

2007-06-13T15:33:00.000Z

Charles Belanger BSc – Director and Laboratory Manager

Born: 1968
Nationality: American

Prior to co-founding Iso-Analytical Limited he was manager of the Analytical Service laboratory of PDZ Europa Ltd (previously Europa Scientific) since 1998. He was first employed by Europa Scientific in 1993 as Development Engineer within their environmental science unit, being promoted to the position of Applications Scientist in 1996. He was awarded a BSc in Engineering from Michigan State University in 1993.

Charles not only manages the day to day analysis of circa 15,000 samples that pass through the laboratory each year but keeps the instruments fully maintained. This is a key reason why we can supply our good turnaround to ensure that researchers get their data in good time. IRMS systems are notoriously prone to minor breakdowns and therefore it is necessary that we can maintain and service them ourselves to avoid the delays that would result from waiting for Manufacturer's service engineers to attend to a breakdown.

Main responsibilities in Iso-Analytical: Analysis, laboratory regulation and quality control, instrument maintenance, information technology and supervision of support staff.

Profile of Steve Brookes

2007-06-13T10:15:00.000Z

Steve Brookes, BSc (Hon), PhD – Managing Director

Born: 1962
Nationality: British

Commenced employment with the scientific instrument manufacturer Europa Scientific in 1988, direct from PhD studies, at Manchester Polytechnic.

Initially appointed as Applications Biochemist, with the brief to develop the human metabolic market for isotope analysis. This involved experimental work, instrument demonstrations, installations at customer sites and the preparation and presentation of scientific material. His major achievement came with identification of the need for a carbon-13 breath test system, followed by involvement in its development and commercial introduction.

He went on to establish and manage a metabolic research unit, when the company decided to service the market by creating applications based sectors. This involved management of sales, marketing, R&D, production, budget control and service for this sector. He was later promoted to Sales and Marketing director for the companies research products in 1997 (£2.6M turnover). Duties involved managing the sales team, marketing activities, customer service and applications development. At its height, this involved management of 11 people. Europa Scientific was forced into receivership in late 1998. After being bought out of receivership, and becoming PDZ Europa Ltd, he was retained as Sales & Marketing manager to achieve sales of £1.5M, despite tbeir loss in market credibility and budgetary constraints.

During his time at Europa Scientific he made a large number of contacts with key people in the stable isotope community and contributed to that community by setting up many industry-academia collaborations.

When the time was right to move away from the scientific instrument supply industry in the year 2000, he co-founded Iso-Analytical Limited with Charles Belanger and Ian Begley. Their aim was to apply their 'Expertise In Stable Isotope Analysis' by setting up a contract analysis laboratory that could be used by Academia and Industry alike.

Main responsibilities in Iso-Analytical: Sales, business planning and administration, advertising and sample analysis.

Simsug 2007

2007-06-12T14:38:00.000Z

Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry User Group (SIMSUG) 2007

The annual meeting of the Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry User Group
20-22 June 2007

Hosted by the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability & the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University

SIMSUG Website link

We at Iso-Analytical are particularly pleased that after a short break, the annual SIMSUG meeting is back on the agenda and is being hosted by Newcastle University next week. It is an ideal opportunity for some of us to get out of the laboratory for a couple of days and meet our customers.

In attendance next week will be Iso-Analytical co-founder Charles Belanger, analyst Tanith Allwood and soon to be our newest analyst Gillian Taylor.

As always, we are very pleased to be a sponsor of this event which provides both a formal program of presentations about research with stable isotopes and an informal forum for the exchange of ideas.

Please come and say hello to us.

Welcome to the Iso-Analytical Blog

2007-06-12T13:40:00.000Z

We have set up the Iso-Analytical blog to keep users of stable isotopes up to date with what is going on in our laboratory. Whether you are an existing client of Iso-Analytical or are would like to enquire about using our services, you will be able to find information here about:

New services and analytical methods
The people at Iso-Analytical
The instrumentation we have at our disposal
What our customers are using stable isotopes for
Help and advise on preparing and sending your samples
Special offers and research awards
News of isotope analysis related events e.g. conferences

While these pages will initially only provide a point of information, we hope in time to make the blog interactive so that you can post questions to us.

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the new medium and find it useful and I welcome any feedback you can give me by e-mailing at the address shown in the blog header.

For and on behalf of Iso-Analytical Ltd

Steve Brookes