MARUM Research Academy
Report of Anja Ruhl
Introduction to HPLC at the Coburg University of applied sciences and arts organised by the German Chemical Society (GDCh) in Coburg, Germany from 8 to 11 July 2024
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a method utilised in analytical chemistry for the separation, identification and quantification of compounds in liquid samples. This course focusses on providing basic theoretical knowledge about the methodology and the instrument itself in combination with the practical consolidation of this knowledge.
The course lasted 4 days, which were divided into a theoretical part in the morning and a practical part in the afternoon. A total of 7 people took part in the course, the group is rarely larger, so everyone had sufficient opportunity to work on the equipment themselves. The lecturers Prof. Dr. Kalkhof and Prof. Dr. Götzinger were very motivated and conveyed the theoretical basics well while always providing a link to practical application.
In the practical part, we first had the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the instruments and the associated software from different manufacturers. However, the core of the training consisted of optimising the separation of different substances by setting the various parameters accordingly. We were able to try out for ourselves how, for example, isocratic separation differs from gradient separation and how it affects the separation result. Another large part was dedicated to troubleshooting, which was very helpful in order to be able to solve problems that may occur with the instrument or the separation of substances in the future.
This enabled me to acquire fundamental knowledge for this method, which is crucial for my PhD project, as I want to identify and quantify the metabolites used for the communication of marine benthic diatoms and their associated bacteria in biofilms using HPLC.
Thanks to Prof. Dr. Kalkhof, Prof. Dr. Götzinger, their colleagues and the other participants, I had a great time and learned a lot, not only about HPLC. I am grateful that GLOMAR made it possible for me to take part in this course.