Bioanalytics – Chemical
Donald Chace, MSFS PhD FAACC
Senior Application and Product Specialist
Capitainer AB
Swansea, Massachusetts
Matthew Halquist, PhD
Associate Professor and Laboratory Director
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia
The use of dried blood spots in newborn screening has formed a cornerstone for current and future work in the microsample analysis. I have had more than 30 years experience in this space that include the development of the mass spectrometric analysis of amino acids and acylcarnitines from DBS used in newborn screening. I have also gone beyond screening to other applications in postmortem screening and analysis of L-carnitine from dialysis patients. There are many advantages in DBS analysis include the "microsample", reduced biohazards, shipping and storage costs but challenges include precision in terms of volume of blood. It is one reason why newborn screening is called screening. With the need to do more remote sampling in other applications but with more precision and accuracy, there have been many developments and new devices. Following COVID there is a desire for more remote sampling and telehealth medicine etc and many new devices that address this need. I will discuss the history, tricks of the trade and why we are experience a renaissance in microsampling.