Analyticon 2020 webinar spotlights remote blood collection for virtual studies

November 2020 -— The second meeting of the Analytical and Bioanalytical Methods Conference, Analyticon 2020, was a virtual event held November 5-7 by United Scientific Group, a non-profit organization. Each year, the Analyticon program provides opportunities for scientists, professors, industrialists and students to discuss practical experiences and novel ideas for advances and developments in analytical chemistry, including various techniques and their applications.

Analytical techniques or methods involve instruments and processes that are implemented for separation, detection, identification and quantification of matter. Bioanalytical chemistry, a branch of analytical chemistry, includes the characterization of biological samples. Thus, the domain of analytical techniques has widespread applications in medicine, biotechnology, forensics, and more.

James Rudge, PhD, was a featured speaker at this year's Analyticon event. Dr. Rudge is the technical director for medical device company Neoteryx. He presented on "Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling - Enabling Patient Centric Sampling for Personalized Healthcare and At-Home Clinical Trials." A recording of his presentation is available on the Neoteryx website. Dr. Rudge's presentation would be of interest to research scientists and clinical trial managers wanting to utilize remote specimen collection for remote patient monitoring, virtual clinical trials and studies analyzing remote samples.

Remote specimen collection keeps study participants and patients safe at home, and takes a patient-centric approach that is particularly relevant during a viral pandemic or similar crisis. At-home specimen collection can be very helpful for therapeutic drug monitoring, where drug concentration levels in blood must be tracked throughout treatment. TDM patients can use Mitra^® microsampling devices from Neoteryx to conveniently collect multiple samples at different time-points without having to visit the clinic or lab. With remote sampling, there is no need for in-person visits with a phlebotomist. Patients and study subjects can self-collect high-quality samples with minimal instruction and can mail samples directly to a lab for analysis.

Dr. Rudge's presentation provides a short history of dried blood spot sampling, from DBS cards to the latest advance, volumetric absorptive microsampling, or VAMS^®. Dr. Rudge offers an overview of how VAMS works, and how it overcomes the challenges of other types of sampling, such as hematocrit bias and cold chain shipping, among others. He shows how Mitra and VAMS technology deliver dependable data that correlate to wet specimen data, providing evidence of this via several case studies and publications.

James Rudge, who has a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wales, has served as Technical Director of Neoteryx since January of 2015. He is a co-inventor of the Mitra Microsampling Device and the Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling (VAMS) technology.

Prior to joining Neoteryx, Dr. Rudge worked for Phenomenex for 14 years. During his tenure at Phenomenex, Dr. Rudge held multiple roles, including Key Account Manager, Field Service Specialist and European Business Development Manager for Clinical. These roles allowed him to collaborate with customers on a range of projects, regularly working in customer laboratories around the world to help develop novel sample preparation and LC / LC-MS methods.

For additional information on Analyticon 2020, please visit the event website.