Fast chromatography in the regulated bioanalytical environment: sub-2-µm versus fused-core particles

Increased throughput and rapid data turnaround have necessitated the need for faster LC separations in the regulated bioanalytical environment; sub-2-μm and fused-core chromatography are two viable approaches to accomplish this. Sub-2-μm columns offer high efficiency and resolution separations at the cost of high system backpressure and are best suited for preclinical sample analysis, whereas fused-core columns offer slightly lower efficiency and resolution, but are more tolerant to dirty extracts (such as those seen in clinical samples) that may clog the inlet filter. For clinical sample analyses, sub-2-μm columns should be restricted to sample extracts obtained via LLE or SLE, whereas fused-core columns can be used with sample preparations techniques ranging from protein precipitation to SLE.