Dermal Interstitial Fluid (d-ISF) is the liquid that bathes the tissues just underneath the surface of the skin and is of increasing interest as a body fluid that can be used for continuous monitoring of both endogenous and exogenous compounds. To catalogue the more than 3000 small molecules present in d-ISF Professor Tony Cass and his research team are starting to analyse time-series of samples drawn from volunteers. As the small sample volumes are small (20µl or the size of a small drop) and there will be large numbers (thousands) of them the team is developing rapid, high throughput separation and analysis methods in collaboration with an applications specialist from Agilent and then using sophisticated software for their identification and quantitation.

Agilent’s automated liquid handling application helps to extract the most data points possible from our precious samples, enable us to develop rapid, high throughput separation and analysis methods.

Acknowledgements: Prof Tony Cass, Dr Trevor Ferris and Dr Lisa Haigh (Chemistry) and Gordon Ross (Agilent)