Bruker Highlights New Analytical Systems and Applied Market Solutions at Pittcon 2019

At a March 19, 2019 press conference at Pittcon 2019, Bruker highlighted new and innovative analytical systems and high-value applied market solutions for several industry applications, including pharma applications, materials science research and quality control, clinical and preclinical research, food analysis, and advances in scientific software solutions.

“Our new analytical instruments and solutions shown at Pittcon 2019 demonstrate the diversity and flexibility that Bruker brings to the world of laboratory science. Bruker is committed to providing the best technological solutions to meet the analytical requirements of our customers, and that includes increasing our presence in the laboratory software and applied solutions markets," said Frank H. Laukien, PhD, Bruker's president and CEO, in a company press release.

Applied and industrial R&D and QC

Among its new industrial R&D and quality control instruments, Bruker presented the Invenio-S Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) system and the G6 Leonardo gas fusion analyzer. 

Invenio-S FTIR is an entry-level version of the Invenio platform and replaces the Tensor FTIR series. The Invenio-S is a new, high-performance FTIR spectrometer meant to maximize productivity in advanced laboratory analysis and research. Bruker’s permanently aligned RockSolid interferometer, CenterGlow IR source, temperature-controlled deuterated triglycine sulfate, and long-life diode laser together are expected to ensure best performance, robustness, and low-running costs. The integrated touch panel operation provides intuitive guidance with typical workflows from routine analytical quality control (QC) protocols to R&D applications, the company reports.

The new G6 Leonardo is an inert gas fusion (IGF) analyzer that is economic, robust, and precise, according to Bruker. It is applicable for oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen (ONH) concentration measurements in inorganic samples. This instrument introduces SampleCare into IGF-analysis for metals and ceramics and deploys the Smart Molecule Sequence for elemental analysis. It offers pre-calibrated standard methods and argon gas instead of helium and addresses the needs of industrial process and QC for easy and cost-effective operation.

Laboratory software and solutions for pharma

Among Bruker’s highlighted news at Pittcon were its two recent acquisitions. On March 14, 2019, the company announced the acquisition of Arxspan, a provider of cloud-based scientific software and workflow solutions. Arxspan is known for its line of cloud-based products used to manage pharma and biopharma research data. With the acquisition, Bruker can now provide a range of software tools in the chemistry, pharmaceutical, biopharma, and analytical laboratory markets. 

This acquisition follows an earlier strategic partnership with and majority investment in Mestrelab Research, a Spain-based developer of software solutions designed to accelerate R&D. Bruker announced the Mestrelab collaboration in December 2018. Together with the acquisition of Arxspan, Bruker will now be able to offer state-of-the-art chemistry and biopharma software tools, supporting discovery and development.

The collaboration between Bruker and Mestrelab expands the software solutions portfolio for applied nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and intends to provide a simple, instrument-to-result automation environment that allows users to build automated solutions tailored to their workflow. For example, the integration of Bruker's Fragment-Based Screening (FBS) solution with Mestrelab's MScreen software provides drug discovery groups an integrated experience from data acquisition and data analysis to the identification of hits in FBS-by-NMR campaigns.

In addition to the Arxspan and Mestrelab transactions, Bruker also announced the minispec Form Check, a time-domain--nuclear magnetic resonance (TD–NMR) solution to monitor phase purity and quantify physical API forms, including amorphization. The patent-pending minispec Form Check uses 1H or 19F relaxometry data as easy-to-obtain fingerprints for expected components in solid mixtures, which replaces excessive calibration, delicate sample preparation, and expert know-how.

Bruker also has a collaboration with MilliporeSigma in which they developed certified reference materials tailored to quantitative NMR (qNMR). A novel, two-component mixture manufactured in the ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 17034 accredited workflow at MilliporeSigma serves as the basis of the new quantitative performance qualification (qPQ) test. This qPQ is now incorporated within the Bruker AssureSST software, allowing automated PQ tailored to qNMR.

Clinical and preclinical applications

In the clinical space, Bruker and Murdoch University announced a collaboration for a phenomics center of excellence in Australia to further develop NMR and MS-based precision medicine solutions. Murdoch University, the Australian National Phenome Center (ANPC, a core platform of the Western Australian Health Translation Network), and Bruker announced a memorandum of understanding for a collaboration in metabolomics research and instrumentation infrastructure. The partners will develop a phenomics center for the advancement of precision medicine.

"This collaboration brings state-of-the-art instruments and experienced professionals to Australia, augmenting the growing investment in precision medicine in the Asia Pacific region. Working with Bruker, the ANPC at Murdoch aspire to create new disease prevention and treatment strategies through integrative studies of humans in their total environment. This will enable better understanding of gene–environment interactions that determine [the] health status of individuals and populations,” Jeremy Nicholson, PhD, ProVice Chancellor of Health Sciences at Murdoch University and leading the APCN, said in a Bruker company press release. “We wish to leverage key technology advantages offered by Bruker platforms and address new challenges that link precision nutrition and health programs to large scale food screening and population phenotyping. Such precise data will allow clinicians to better predict health problems and intervene earlier, saving time, money, and lives."

In the preclinical space, Bruker introduced the new Skyscan 1273 3D X-ray microscope (XRM), which sets a new standard for high-resolution non-destructive testing (NDT) with benchtop microCT systems. Performance such as this was previously only achieved by floor standing systems, according to the company. The new microscope can investigate samples with up to 20-kg weight and up to 500-mm length and 300-mm diameter. The combination of an X-ray source running at higher power settings and a 6-megapixel flat-panel detector with high sensitivity and speed provides excellent image quality in seconds, with areas of application ranging from manufacturing, geology, oil, and gas exploration to bone imaging.

Further, Bruker received an order from the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal for the preclinical BioSpec 18 Tesla ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the world’s first, according to Bruker, for delivery in 2021. The ultra-high magnetic field and sensitivity-enhancing CryoProbes in the MRI system will be used to develop novel contrasts in MRI and MR spectroscopic imaging. These new methods will be applied to investigate cancer, metastasis and premetastatic niches in vivoin multiple animal models of cancer, and advanced neuroscience research on mouse brain plasticity and activity. The system is expected to enable truly microscopic 3D spatial resolution in vivo, allowing for detailed morphology investigations

Other new imaging systems highlighted at Pittcon include the JPK NanoWizard Ultra Speed 2, which combines high speed and resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) with advanced bio-imaging features, and the new Dimension XR family of scanning probe microscopes, which incorporate major AFM innovations.

JPK NanoWizard Ultra Speed 2 was developed in close collaboration with bio-AFM customers. The system is the first new product to come out of Bruker's JPK BioAFM business, formed in July 2018 with the acquisition of JPK Instruments. The system has an AFM scanning speed of 10 frames per second, offering true atomic resolution and advanced life-science capabilities.

The Dimension XR scanning probe microscopes incorporate major AFM innovations, including Bruker's proprietary and exclusive DataCube nanoelectrical modes, AFM-scanning electrochemical microscopy AFM-SECM for energy research, and the new AFM–nanoscale dynamic mechanical analysis (AFM–nDMA) mode, which for the first time correlates polymer nanomechanics to bulk DMA. Dimension XR is available in three configurations optimized for nanomechanics, nanoelectrical, or nanoelectrochemical applications. These systems significantly expand researchers' ability to quantify material properties at the nanoscale in air, fluids, electrical, and chemically reactive environments, Bruker reports.

Food analysis solutions

In the food analysis arena, Bruker announced the launch of two new milk analyzers: MIRA, which is based on infrared technology, and the Globulyser, used to analyze the homogenizer efficiency of raw milk and liquid milk products. The company also launched the new proprietary Honey-Profiling 2.0 Method for the Bruker NMR FoodScreener platform, which now further improves the detection of sugar syrups and considerably expands the scope of geographical and botanical honey origins that can be verified.

Pittcon runs from March 17–21, 2019 in Philadelphia, PA.

Source: Bruker