Anal Bioanal Chem (2006) 385: 1153–1154 DOI 10.1007/s00216-006-0580-5

EDITORIA L

Alfredo Sanz-Medel

Focus on Bioanalytical Chemistry in Spain from papers presented at XI Jornadas de Análisis Instrumental (JAI) 15–17 November 2005, Barcelona, Spain Published online: 4 July 2006 # Springer-Verlag 2006

The 11th meeting of Jornadas de Análisis Instrumental (JAI) took place in Barcelona in November 2005. This is today the most important analytical research meeting in Spain, organised every three years within the framework of the chemical exhibition of Expoquimia. A remarkable organisational novelty of this eleventh meeting was the drastic change of location of the conference and exhibition from the traditional Fira de Barcelona facilities, next to Plaza de España, to a new allocation in the complex Gran Vía M2. It must be said that neither the inaugurated location and facilities (admittedly much more spacious) nor the general organisation from Fira de Barcelona could compete with previous JAI meetings. Fortunately, the vitality and strength of present analytical research in Spain could overcome organisational drawbacks and limitations experienced in the new Gran Via M2 complex. In fact, the number of registered JAI participants grew to about 750 people and, what is more, above 650 oral and visual contributions from all over Spain (also a few from abroad) were presented. The main research areas of these presentations included: food, environment, new materials, bioanalysis, sensors, speciation and analytical nanotechnology. Additionally, a few small workshops took place the day before, on the 14th of November. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry was actively represented at JAI and two ABC prizes were offered by Dr. A. Pfeifer on behalf of the journal: the prize for the best A. Sanz-Medel (*) Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, University of Oviedo, C/Julian Claveria 8, 33006 Oviedo, Spain e-mail: [email protected]

contribution in Bioanalytics was awarded to the paper: Molecular imprinted ormosils for nafcillin recognition by room temperature phosphorescence optosensing by L. Guardia, R. Badía and M.E. Díaz García, while the prize for the best contribution on Chemical Speciation went to: Mass spectrometric techniques (HPLC-ICP-MS and ESIMS) for characterization of cisplatin-DNA adducts by D. García Sar, E. Blanco González, M. Montes Bayón and A. Sanz-Medel. The present special issue tries to give to ABC readers a taste of the about 90 contributions related to Bioanalytics, which were presented at the 2005 JAI meeting in Barcelona. As can be seen, a total of 18 papers were finally accepted for publication after peer review, following the regular publication process of ABC. All JAI related papers of this issue reflect, in a way, the pending problems in this field and current relevant analytical tools to tackle them. As we should do in the laboratory, it is sensible to start with sample preparation. It appears that “sample prep” issues continue to worry and exhaust a large portion of the energy of Bioanalytical researchers. In this vein, several papers illustrate here how innovative technologies (e.g. molecularly imprinted polymers, solid phase microextraction or fast sequential extraction procedures in speciation) may come to the rescue when tackling difficult real sample matrices, including biomass smoke, plant material or chicken meat. Of course, to have an appropriate (bio)sensor at our disposal would be ideal for analytical control of a known compound or species in a given matrix (sample). In fact, four papers have attempted this attractive concept, using simple electrochemical detection (a sequential injection electronic tongue, genosensors, monoenzyme or bienzyme sensors are described).

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The complexity of real biological samples very often requires resorting to a good chemical separation before final detection of analytes. Thus, it is not surprising that five papers in this selection are devoted to developing HPLC separations followed by DAD or fluorimetric on-line detection to determine several important compounds, drugs and metabolites in the most varied biological samples. Also, the use of GC separation methods in connection with MS detectors is illustrated to resolve and determine tomato aromas and resin-based varnishes from oil paintings. Finally, the present usefulness of chemometrical approaches to Bioanalytics is also illustrated here with applications to the on-line monitoring of cell cultures, the simultaneous determination of anticancer drugs or the evaluation of uncertainties in sediment Hg determinations. Alfredo Sanz-Medel has been a Professor in the Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Oviedo since 1982. He is author and coauthor of around 450 scientific publications in international journals, several patents and some books. Dr. Sanz-Medel’s present research interests include: 1. New atomic detectors and analytical methodologies for ultratrace elemental analysis using plasmas. 2. New molecular optical sensors, particularly those based on the use of quantum dots. 3. Hybrid Techniques, coupling a separation unit and an atomic detector, for ultratrace and trace metal analysis and their speciation to solve biological and environmental problems. 4. Speciation for Proteomics, integrating MS “molecular” (MALDI-TOF and ElectrosprayQ-TOF) and “atomic” (ICP-MS) metal and semi-metal biomolecules, introducing the extensive use of ICP-MS for “heteroatom-tagged Proteomics”. He has been on the Editorial Board of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry since 2002.