May
15

Getting ready for ASMS

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It is pouring rain here at our office in King of Prussia, PA, which makes packing to leave for ASMS this weekend much easier. I have a bad habit of not checking the weather in cities before traveling to them, and basing my non-Tosoh wardrobe choices on what I have seen of this place on television. For example, I did not pack any sweaters when we went to San Diego for the ACS show in March. Isn’t it supposed to be always sunny and hot in California? Unfortunately for me, it went into the 50’s at night, making it impossible for me to wear pretty much anything I packed. Gearing up for Vancouver this week, I am assuming it will resemble the arctic tundra. Apparently, as I was told by our sales and marketing manager this morning, it will be in the mid-60’s to low 70’s for the show. Who knew Canada wasn’t cold all year round!

Attending shows, traveling to cities all over the country, and even outside of the country, in the case of ASMS this year, has been one of my favorite parts of working at Tosoh. Meeting our customers, talking about our products, and hearing about your applications is the best on-the-job training there is. And we don’t take our presence at these exhibits lightly- if we meet you at a show, we follow up. If you are troubleshooting an application or have a technical question, I am e-mailing our tech service team from my hotel room that night. If you ask me to send you a catalog or a poster, you will be getting it in the mail within two weeks. I personally mailed out every single catalog request from Pittcon- it took me three full days and only a few finger-stretching breaks. We love hearing from you, so don’t miss our booth at ASMS next week (booth #15) and stop by for a bagel at our breakfast presentation Monday morning. Click here to read the abstract and reserve your seat. See you next week, and don’t forget to pack a few sweaters!

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May
01

Happy Golden Week!

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It is Golden Week in Japan. I know this because our parent company like most other Japanese companies celebrates this week long holiday. Although essential operations remain active, the majority of the company is closed while the employees enjoy the time off. What is Golden Week, you ask?

Golden Week, (Ōgon shūkan in Japanese) is actually a week composed of several individual national holidays. These holidays include the following:

  • April 29 — Showa Day
    April 29 is the birthday of former     Emperor Showa, who died in the year 1989. Until 2006, Greenery Day (see May 4) used to be celebrated on this day.
  • May 3 — Constitution Day
    On this day in 1947, the new post     war constitution was put into effect.
  • May 4 — Greenery Day
    Until 2006, Greenery Day used to be celebrated on April 29, the birthday of former Emperor Showa. The day is dedicated to     the environment and nature, because the emperor loved plants and nature. Before being declared Greenery Day, May 4 used to be a national holiday due to a law, which declares a day that falls between two national holidays, a national holiday.
  • May 5 — Children’s Day
    The Boy’s Festival is celebrated on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life. The     Girl’s Festival, by the way, is celebrated on March 3.

In 1948 Japan recognized 9 National Holidays with several falling in the same week. Merchants began to notice the increase in business during this week and a Japanese film executive dubbed it “Golden Week” borrowing from radio lingo which described a time of high ratings as “golden”. Many Japanese use this week for travel and other vacation type activities.

I don’t know about you but I prefer our system where we have most of our National Holidays on a Monday to take advantage of a three day weekend. Several small golden weekends compared to a golden week. What about you?

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Apr
16

Pardon Our Excitement

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I have tried to keep these blogs as non-commercial as possible since all of us are constantly bombarded with ads, promotions, and commercials. Hopefully you will pardon us this one time as we, at Tosoh Bioscience are very excited about a new product we are introducing. As you may know our line of HPLC columns is quite extensive and we often introduce what are called, “product extensions” which are existing chemistries in new column sizes or available in different housing. Our new column is not a product extension but a brand new column.

We are proud to introduce TSKgel Protein C4-300 columns that are optimized for the analysis of proteins by reversed phase chromatography. TSKgel Protein C4-300 columns are available in 2.0 and 4.6 mm inner diameter and 5, 10 and 15 cm column length. The optimized pore size of 300 Å is ideal for the separation of proteins, resulting in higher resolution because of high accessibility into the pores. A particle size of 3 μm yields high theoretical plate counts. Optimized ligand density and alkyl length in the stationary phase result in lower adsorption of the protein, providing better peak shape compared to other leading RP-C4 HPLC phases. Latest surface modification techniques and endcapping of residual silanol groups reduce undesirable secondary interactions and peak tailing.

The silica-based, wide pore TSKgel Protein C4-300 HPLC column is suitable for highly-efficient, reversed phase separations of proteins such as recombinant proteins, antibody fragments or PEGylated proteins. Note the application below comparing our new column to a leading competitor:

I could go on about this column but those of you who are interested will find further information at www.tosohbioscience.com or email me directly at  info.tbl@tosoh.com.

Again, pardon our excitement.

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Mar
27

Ode to Pittcon

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(with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)

I watched the aisles, for customer smiles,
From my spot in the expensive, Tosoh booth.
As I stood awhile, staring at the bleak, empty aisle
A visitor caused me to stir, alas just an exhibitor.
He spoke of Orlando and the barren exhibit hall floor,
And he muttered, “Like Agilent and Perkin-Elmer, Nevermore”.

Pittcon, long ago, the meeting for scientists to go
To hear new talks and shop for what is new.
But lately it has suffered greatly.
Some say the economy hurts the show
Others cite the electronic information flow,
Raising questions as to whether companies should go.

It cost a lot of cash to exhibit at the show in Orlando
In the hope of finding prospects to buy new products.
But traffic is low the exhibit hall very slow,
Less attendees plus less exhibitors is poor
And I wonder if these shows are still de rigueur.
Perhaps like others, we will say, Nevermore.

The booth at the conference often exhibited silence
As visitors trickled through to ask what was new.
I think the conference should be every other year.
A plea that Pittcon chooses to ignore
When Pittcon should strive for its prestige to restore
Or else quoth Tosoh, “Nevermore”.

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Mar
13

Greetings from Pittcon

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Last time I reminisced about the Pittsburgh Conference and this time I am reporting on the actual meeting. I arrived Sunday in Orlando in a driving rain storm thinking, “Hey, this Florida, what’s with the rain?”

For those of you who have not been to a meeting at the Orlando Convention Center, it is huge with several buildings and several large meetings in session. The primary purpose of the meeting is the technical sessions where leading experts present their current work in the analytical field. In addition there are many posters displayed where scientists provide an overview of original work. But to the corporate world the importance of the meeting is meeting customers and developing prospects. For this opportunity companies invest a large amount of dollars to set up “booths” to engage the investigators that walk the many aisles of corporate booths.

As this is being written following the opening day of the exhibition hall (Monday) it is too early to report on attendance. It does appear that the number of booths is less that it was last year. Some of this is due to economic factors but personally I think the digital age has begun to take a toll on the need for a company to physically attend. Certainly early indications indicate that the “traffic” in the aisles was light today, but Tuesday may turn that around.  In any event, the Pittcon remains one of the premier shows for any and all companies in this field.

More later from Orlando…

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