Where Did My Analyte Go? – coping with poor solubility and non-specific binding Catarina Horro Pita (Presenter) LGC, Drug Development Solutions Presenter Bio: Dr Catarina Horro Pita possesses a BSc in Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry and a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. After concluding her PhD, she initiated her professional career as a Synthetic Chemist, prior to moving into Analytical Chemistry and Bioanalysis. She currently holds a position as a Principal Scientist in Drug Development Solutions at LGC, where she has been working for the past eleven years. During her time at LGC, she has worked both as a Study Director, which has given her extensive experience in managing GLP and GCP studies, and as a Technical Specialist, leading LC-MS/MS method development projects for the analysis of both xenobiotic compounds and small molecule biomarkers.

Authors: Catarina Horro Pita, Michael Wright
LGC, Drug Development Solutions

Poor solubility and non-specific binding can be insidious problems that are often overlooked during method development. These issues can result in costly and time-consuming batch failures during validation and, more importantly, the generation of inaccurate results during sample analysis. This training will describe in detail these issues, illustrate case studies and conclude with a workshop, where the audience will be asked to review ‘troublesome’ methods and suggest possible solutions.

The solubility and non-specific binding of an analyte can be affected by the pH and composition of the solution / biological matrix, a common example being a well-behaved plasma assay that exhibits binding issues when transferred to urine. Non-specific binding may also be influenced by the type of material where the solution / biological sample is contained. In addition, both solubility and non specific binding can be affected by the sample extraction technique, sample storage duration and / or temperature. This session will look at these two phenomena and describe a range of possible solutions to overcome these issues.