2012/11
Dear Subscriber !

Welcome to the November issue of EVISA's Speciation Newsletter.

The emission of pharmaceuticals into the environment via the municipal waste water is a topic of growing concern. This is especially true for compounds used in greater quantities in hospitals and medical care centers that are not retained or degraded during waste water treatment. Gd-based MRI contrast agents are designed to have a very high thermodynamic and kinetic stability because of the toxicity of free gadolinium that should not be released into the patient's body during application. Researchers from the University of Münster  studied the behaviour of Gd-based contrast agents both under physiological conditions as well as under environmental conditions during waste water treatment. Using hyphenated techniques for speciation analysis they were able to show that the pharmaceuticals survive the waste water treatment to great extend and are only marginally retained (10 %) (see the news below).

In a second study researchers from the same group studied the metabolism of Gd-based contrast agents under physiological conditions as they appear in the situation of their medical application. Using a electrochemical cell coupled with mass spectrometric detection they could show that N-dealkylation reactions occur that most likely reduce the stability of the Gd complex in vivo. Using HPLC-ESI-MS to study the behaviour of the gadolinium complexes in presence of free iron, they obtained first results indicating that a transmetalation of accessible Fe(III) from the labile iron pool, which has been detected in dialysis patients after administration of parenteral Fe supplements, may be possible with some of the Gd-based contrast agents having reduced kinetic stability (see the news below).

The next bigger conference discussing both methodology as well as analytical applications of such speciation analysis is the  European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry taking place in Cracow, Poland in February next year (see the Conference Agenda below).


NEWS | EVENTS | VACANCIES | DIRECTORY | LINKS
NEWS

EVISA is keeping you updated  with what is going on in speciation analysis. In this section you will find news about the most current research results, about trends, legal issues and informations from manufacturers in the field of speciation analysis.

With all the links to further information and publications the News archive is a valuable collection of "hot topics" in speciation analysis. We continuously update even former news with new links and information so that all news are actual all the time.


Identification and quantification of potential metabolites of Gd-based contrast agents
New results obtained by a research group in Muenster shed some light on possible metabolites of Gd-based contrast agents that could be responsible for the development of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF).
more

The behavior of Gd-based contrast agents during wastewater treatment
Only about 10% of the gadolinium released into the waste water resulting from its use as MRI contrast agent is removed from the waste water stream. This is the result of a new study done by researchers from the University in Muenster (Germany).
more


EVENTS

With a list of about 50 current entries EVISA is informing you about interesting events and keeps you updated with their deadlines. By consulting our list of deadlines you won't miss the opportunity for early registration at reduced fee or the chance to submit your contribution in time.
 more infos...

Please recognize the following deadlines:

XII International Symposium on Metal Ions in Biology and Medicine
Date:     March 11,2013 - March 13,2013
Location:     Punta del Este, Uruguay
November 15,2012    Submission of abstracts for the proceedings
December 3,2012    Submission of abstracts for poster presentations

canas 2013: Colloquium Analytische Atomspektroskopie 2013
Date:     March 17,2013 - March 19,2013
Location:     Freiberg, Germany
December 1,2012    Submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentations

23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC Europe).
Date:     May 12,2013 - May 16,2013
Location:     Glasgow, UK
November 30,2012    Short course proposals
November 30,2012    Submission of abstracts

ICOBTE 2013: 12th International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements
Date:     June 16,2013 - June 20,2013
Location:     Athens, Georgia, USA
November 30,2012    Submission of abstracts


Please do not hesitate to inform us in case that your conference related to speciation analysis is missing in our Agenda.



ISRANALYTICA 2013: the 16th Annual Meeting of the Israel Analytical Chemistry Society
Location: The David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel
Date: 22.01.2013 - 23.01.2013
more

European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry
Location: Krakow, Poland
Date: 10.02.2013 - 15.02.2013
more

ANAKON 2013
Location: Essen, Germany
Date: 04.03.2013 - 07.03.2013
more

XII International Symposium on Metal Ions in Biology and Medicine
Location: Punta del Este, Uruguay
Date: 11.03.2013 - 13.03.2013
more

Pittcon 2013
Location: Philadelphia,
Date: 17.03.2013 - 21.03.2012
more

canas 2013: Colloquium Analytische Atomspektroskopie 2013
Location: Freiberg, Germany
Date: 17.03.2013 - 19.03.2013
more



VACANCIES

EVISA provides information about open positions for Ph.D. students, PostDocs and permanent staff in the field of speciation. Looking to fill a vacancy or needing a new career challenge? Either way this service is FREE. Many laboratories and research facilities (from Greenland to Crete) have already found their highly educated stuff through this service by EVISA. If you would like to post an open position here, please contact us at info@speciation.net !


Doctorates

University of Pau, France: Methods for the determination of redox forms of chromium and organotin compounds
The 2009/48/EC toy safety European directive was recently modified taking into account the emergence of new manufacturing processes and innovations concerning materials and technologies used. This directive went into effect since July 20, 2011 but will come into force from July 20, 2013 regarding chemical requirements.
more

University of Warwick: Extreme Performance Mass Spectrometry of Metallodrugs
Two Warwick Collaborative Postgraduate Research PhD Scholarships are available from October 2012 in the groups led by Professor Peter Sadler FRS and Professor Pete O’Connor using ultra high resolution mass spectrometry to study the mechanism of action of organometallic and photoactivatable metal anticancer complexes.
more

University of Pau, France: Cellular imaging of metal stress in fungi and/or algae by synchrotron XRF and NanoSIMS
This doctoral thesis will be performed in the context of a recently obtained excellence project (EQUIPEX MARSS) at the University of Pau where one axis of the project is the acquisition of a NanoSIMS.
more


Postdoctoral

Pau (France): Post-doctoral fellowship in environmental chemistry and biogeochemistry
An 18 months postdoctoral position is available for a highly motivated young researcher to investigate Selenium biotransformation and isotopic fractionation by aquatic micro-organisms using new analytical and experimental approaches.
more

U.S. EPA, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Las Vegas: Detecting, Quantifying, and Characterizing Engineered Nanomaterials in the Environment
This research opportunity focuses on developing novel analytical
approaches to detect, quantify, and characterize engineered nanomaterials at environmentally relevant concentrations in real environmental matrices.

more


Other



DIRECTORY

EVISA's directory of scientist is a versatile tool to facilitate contact with scientists in the field of speciation and related sciences. The directory is fully searchable for names, addresses, research topics etc.  You should bookmark this directory as an always up-to-date address book. (In order to hinder SPAM robots for collecting the E-mail accounts, we hide them in a special format).

More than 275 active scientists in the field of speciation analysis already joined the directory. Join this great directory that is extensively linked to all type of other information on this site, such as homepages, conferences and literature.

If your entry is still missing in this directory, please contact us at info@speciation.net.

more


LINKS

EVISA provides an easy access to external information. Our database contains more than 2660 links to relevant information from numerous top scientific resources spread over the whole Web. The database is searchable both via full-text and categories such as elements, type of species and type of information. We are permanently updating our links section.

If your web site is missing here, please e-mail your link information to info@speciation.net.

 
more

This issue of evisa's Speciation Newsletter has been sent to you by EVISA, because you have registered for this service. If you would like to modify your user account, please log-in on EVISA's web portal at http://www.speciation.net with your username and password and edit your user account.

Please feel free to pass this Speciation Newsletter to others who may benefit from EVISA. If you have any contributions or suggestions, please send these to editors@speciation.net.

This is a post-only e-mail.  Please do not reply to this message.  For all inquiries, problems or suggestions regarding this service, please visit http://www.speciation.net or contact info@speciation.net



Copyright 2012 EVISA 
All rights reserved.  Any unauthorized use, reproduction, or transfer of this message or its contents, in any medium, is strictly prohibited.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of EVISA.


Disclaimer
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. The Newsletter represents only the opinion of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Community. The European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of the information provided.