UC San Diego

High throughput methods are of great interest to multi-billion-dollar industries. High throughput methods can make screening and analysis for assays/experiments efficient and cost-effective. This is especially true for biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries trying to screen for specific analytes of interest produced through genetically modified microorganisms. For this thesis, succinic acid standards in cyanobacteria media were screened using four different instruments. Multiple instruments were used to compare which could be used for high throughput screening for succinic acid. The standards were made in a BG-11, a cyanobacteria growth medium, to simulate as close to an actual sample that could be received. The instruments used for this experiment were HPLC, GCMS, HSGC, and CIMS. Fisher esterification was performed on the succinic acid standards to be analyzed on the GCMS, HSGC, and CIMS. The esterification was conducted not through reflux but by placing the reaction mixture in air-tight crimp vials and placing the vials in a hot water bath. The duty cycles to screen succinic acid per sample through HPLC, GCMS, HSGC, and CIMS were approximately 17min, 5.93min, 5.25min, 3min, respectively.