Chemical Society Seminar: Scott Hopkins- Beyond the Column: How Ion Mobility Adds a New Dimension to Chiral LC–MS Analysis

Abstract:

In 2021, while developing a differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) method for separating anti-arrhythmic drugs, we observed distinct behavioural differences between Verapamil, a chiral tertiary amine, and its demethylated amine metabolite, Norverapamil – Verapamil’s ionogram exhibited two baseline-resolved features, whereas Norverapamil’s showed only one. We found that Verapamil’s behaviour arose from protonation-induced chirality (PIC) of its tertiary amine during electrospray ionization, which produced diastereomers that could be separated in the gas phase via DMS.

Over the last few years, we have stepped through the looking glass and into a chiral wonderland, where we are now developing new multi-dimensional chiral liquid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry, and mass spectrometry methods to analyze chiral compounds. Recently, we used our new techniques to study bioaccumulation of drug enantiomers in fish near wastewater treatment facilities, and to reveal the phenomenon of protonation-induced pseudo-chirality (PIpC) of pseudo-asymmetric tertiary amines. In this seminar, I’ll introduce some of our new analytical methods and I’ll describe some recent applications in this space.

Bio:

Scott Hopkins a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Waterloo and Project Lead for WaterFEL, Canada’s new free electron laser laboratory. He is a global leader in physical and analytical chemistry, and applications of his research program include the characterization of trace contaminants in environmental and biological samples, as well as the identification and investigation of new phenomena in molecular systems. Prof. Hopkins has published more than 100 articles, has authored two books, and has filed seven patents. He has been recognized with several national awards, including the PerkinElmer Award for Spectroscopy and Analytical Sciences and the Keith Laidler Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry. Scott has given more than 60 invited lectures and more than 20 interviews in the popular media. His water analysis program screens water quality for more than 3 million Canadians and he has recently begun working with a team of researchers at the University of Toronto and several Toronto hospitals to develop new AI-driven tools for intra-operative cancer diagnostics.