Madison, WI--Thermo Fisher Scientific says that its Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) automated sampling techniques, originally created for pharmaceutical high-throughput screening systems, can be effectively used to characterize the chemical composition of biological systems, such as lipids, in algae. This is important because algae could be a source of the biomass required to create large amounts of biofuels.
Increasing lipids is important
Algae and other aquatic species are promising sources for the large amounts of biomass required for conversion into biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels. Researchers have emphasized the need to increase the amount of lipid produced by algae. To achieve this, a technique is required that can efficiently characterize the chemical composition of algae. FT-IR has been used extensively to characterize the chemical composition of biological samples including bacteria, single cells and tissues. Recently, FT-IR has been documented as a viable method for determining the protein, carbohydrate and lipid content in biomass from algae. Sample preparation is a key step of the process in order to increase the number of samples that can be analyzed and obtain reproducible results.
Thermo Scientific's techniques combine instrumentation, accessories, and software to increase the number of biological samples that can be analyzed with automated spectroscopy. Researchers can choose from four different configurations capitalizing on attenuated-total-reflection (ATR) spectroscopy, transmission spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy, and IR microscopy to suit varying analytical requirements and sample-preparation methods.
The company says that a combination of its Nicolet iS10 FT-IR spectrometer configured with a Smart iTR diamond accessory or Smart OMNI-transmission accessory can be used to obtain spectra from dried algae. The Nicolet 6700 FT-IR system, equipped with an automated well-plate reader and the Thermo Scientific OMNIC Array Automation software, can analyze multiple samples in reflectance studies in a simple and low-cost manner. Reliable IR microscope transmission data can be obtained using the Nicolet 6700 and a Nicolet Continuum IR microscope configured with an automated X-Y stage.
See www.thermo.com/ftir for more info.
