Chemists Developing “Game-Changing” Methods to Measure Contaminants

Thanks to a $487,314 research infrastructure grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund, Dr. Chris Gill and Dr. Erik Krogh, VIU Chemistry Professors and Co-Directors of the Applied Environmental Research Laboratories (AERL), are one step closer on their journey. Thermo Fisher Scientific also provided an in-kind donation. The money and donation helped VIU acquire an Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer System made by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the first high-resolution mass spectrometry instrument of its kind available in the central Vancouver Island region for research and development. Acquiring this piece of equipment will allow them to develop faster, better and cheaper methods of analyzing complicated samples for trace contaminants and train the next generation of researchers to make challenging chemical measurements using direct mass spectrometry. The researchers’ long-term goals include developing next generation technologies, that in the future could be used to measure environmental, forensic and clinical samples in the field instead of having to send the samples to a lab and wait for results.

“In the bigger picture, what we’re working toward are really ‘game-changing’ methods and techniques that shift the whole paradigm of how we get accurate chemical measurements done in a hurry. This can make a big difference, for example, in the clinical setting or at a contaminated site,” says Krogh.

VIU’s Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer System made by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer system provides excellent mass resolution, which allows researchers to easily identify and measure closely related molecules in complex mixtures. “With this high-precision data, we can start to answer different questions like what are the other things in complicated samples that might be influencing our measurements?” says Gill. “What are the interferences we see? It could be an environmental sample. It could be a drug sample. It could be any complicated real-world sample we need to know more about.”

Gill says this research can help develop better tools for use in clinical diagnostics, harm reduction drug checking, responding to environmental issues and assisting first responders. 

VIU Chemistry Professor and Co-Director of the AERL

VIU Chemistry Professor and Co-Director of the AERL