NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shimadzu Scientific Instruments today announced the opening of the Shimadzu Center for Advanced Analytical Chemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The center is equipped with $6 million of chromatography, mass spectrometry, and spectroscopy equipment, making it the largest installation of Shimadzu analytical instrumentation in the Western Hemisphere, Shimadzu said.
The new center will allow researchers at the UT Arlington College of Science and the College of Engineering "to access the enhanced capabilities for trace qualitative and quantitative analysis," the company said, adding its instruments will be used in research aimed at preventing and treating illnesses such as cancer and malaria, and developing nanofabrication materials.
Mass spec-based research will be performed to test ways of analyzing cuticular lipids that can tell the age of a species of mosquitoes known to spread malaria, for example. Also, mass specs will be used to analyze chemicals in the environment that may interfere with normal hormone functions and cause cancer.
In conjunction with the opening of the center, Kevin Schug was named the Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry. Schug, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UT Arlington, will oversee the center.