Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) has
announced the recipients of its latest Thought Leader award: Dr. Jens Frisvad
and the Center for Microbial Biotechnology in the Department of Systems Biology
at the Technical University of Denmark.
With this award, Agilent is
contributing measurement solutions and expertise to support research in food
safety, specifically the metabolomics of mycotoxins (toxins made by mold).
The Center for Microbial Biotechnology
is working to create a targeted metabolomics approach for thousands of
compounds produced by Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium - filamentous molds
that frequently contaminate food and can lead to illness. As a key aspect of
the research, scientists will use mutable internal standards to calibrate
changes in both chromatographic retention and mass-spec sensitivity in order to
compare extracts over many years. The Agilent Thought Leader Award will provide
the lab with use of a LC-QTOF system for discovery metabolomics, as well as a
LC-QQQ system for target screening.
"Our research is aimed at showing
the impact that analysis of LC-QTOF and LC-QQQ data can have on understanding
the metabolomics of mycotoxins," said Dr. Frisvad. "We are extremely
pleased that Agilent is helping us continue this important food-safety
research."
"Our support of the work being
done at the Center for Microbial Biotechnology closely aligns with a major
initiative at Agilent: providing tools and methods that help test the global
food supply," said Mike McMullen, president of Agilent's Chemical Analysis
Group. "By providing instruments to Dr. Frisvad and his team, we continue
Agilent's long history of helping create innovative ways to improve food
safety."
The Center for Microbial Biotechnology
also plans to use the Agilent LC-QTOF and LC-QQQ to continue collaborative
projects to study pathogenic fish bacteria, as well as measuring mycotoxins in
air and possibly human blood.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is
the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical
analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company's 18,700
employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues
of $6.6 billion in fiscal 2011. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.