Dr. Susanne Fabel is an HPLC Product Marketing Manager in the Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry group at Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in Germering, Germany.
Dr. Susanne Fabel
She joined Dionex (now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific) in 2007 as an HPLC product specialist and later became a solutions specialist, with the goal of helping analytical chemists beat unsolvable challenges. In 2017, she left the lab bench and moved into product marketing to help develop and promote world-class chromatography products.
Her invaluable contributions include the birth of the Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Horizon UHPLC System in 2014, and continuously improving the performance of the Vanquish platform by deep-diving simultaneously in all the Thermo Scientific™ Chromeleon™ Chromatography Data System (CDS) software features.
When she’s not working, you’ll likely find her teaching children about our planet or — because she is such an avid outdoorswoman — climbing a mountain.
Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System.
Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System. In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Dr. Fabel about her love for science, the success of her 20-plus-year career in analytical chemistry and contributions to the new Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Analytical Purification LC System.
Dr. Kimberly Lincoln: Introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us a little bit about your professional background, education and how you ended up in analytical science.
Dr. Susanne Fabel: I have a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Technische Universität München and my undergraduate diploma in chemistry.
I always loved science as a kid. But my interest in analytical chemistry began in the first years of my university studies. I worked on a research project making and testing dermal patches as a method to deliver insulin into the blood. That’s when I was first introduced to HPLC analysis.
I really fell in love with how intertwined physics and chemistry are in separation science. I’ve always liked the combination of chemistry and physics, which is the reason why I’m not an organic chemist or “cook.”
At what age did you become interested in science and what’s your best memory of exploring science as a kid?
I’ll never forget. My parents actually got me a chemistry set as a Christmas present when I was only 10 years old. My best memory from this kit is making the “volcano mountain” with baking soda. Of course, the fun part was pouring vinegar inside the volcano and watching the gas bubbles form as the vinegar destroys the volcano.
And then from there, I started making bottle rockets with vinegar and baking soda.
Some really good memories!
You’ve been with Thermo Fisher Scientific for 15 years and helped support the launch and growth of the Vanquish LC system portfolio. What’s the most rewarding aspect of being directly involved in the design and development of these products?
I really see myself as the translator between our engineers and customers, meaning that I listen to feedback from our customers and then work with the R&D team to fine-tune our LC instrument functionalities to better fit their needs. The part I’ve enjoyed most over the last 15 years is seeing our customers reach new milestones as a result of our Vanquish LC instrument technology.
Your most recent product contribution is the launch of our Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Analytical Purification LC System featuring the new integrated Thermo™ Scientific™ Vanquish Fraction Collector. What are some of your favorite technology features of this combo that stand out from the competition? How do these features benefit the user?
I think the most notable thing is the combined separation power of our Vanquish LC Systems with the high performance and high resolution of the Vanquish Fraction Collector. Our customers will now be able to get pinpoint purifications with precision.
This LC purification instrument is unique in quite a few ways:
- Optimized fluidics give low dispersion of peaks due to the ultra-low delay volume, which comes from the fraction collection valve design and the perfectly adjusted, dead-volume free capillary connections with the Thermo Scientific™ Viper™ Fingertight Fitting technology.
- Fast moving parts like the valve switching and fraction collection needle, means you can collect single peaks sharply and as high-yield, purer fractions — less optimized instruments can’t give you the same purity.
- You can automatically press a button to measure the delay volume, which will lead to faster results and purer compounds.
- Integration of the Vanquish platform with Thermo™ Scientific™ Chromeleon CDS software walks you through system set and wizards for method setup, making it easy for new users to learn and set up.
- Generating automatic data reports is simple and customers can easily adapt the report to their needs.
For which applications or research areas do you recommend scientists consider using a Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System, or adding a Vanquish Fraction Collector to an existing system?
I see the most beneficial applications taking place in gene therapy for mRNA production, AAVs, and biopharma general antibody impurity analysis (charged variants and aggregates), and natural product research, like in traditional Chinese medicine.
You really need to see a whole workflow to understand how you can improve a step, like removing impurities and generating higher yields during synthesis or sample preparation steps. Our new purification LC system can help you optimize upstream and downstream processes. These include upstream processes for scaling production, like in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, and downstream processes, such as looking at impurities to see if a compound is harmful or for finding new leads.
Having ultra-pure compounds also allows you to carry out structural characterizations with nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry and even cryogenic electron microscopy.
To learn more how the Vanquish can help you in your upstream and downstream processes, watch this YouTube whiteboard video.
What are the most important things someone new to HPLC should know before doing an analytical scale purification? For example, what challenges might they have, and how can they prepare accordingly?
- Look at using the right collection vessels and sealings, control the storage conditions like light and temperature and have an eye on organic content and pH, especially when working with biomolecules.
- Separate the important sample components from the matrix or the impurities from the main peak. You need to use the right method preparation protocol to eliminate any co-elution.
- Make sure you have the right detector for the right analytes and decide if you want to use peak identity or retention time for setting the fractionation triggers.
- Optimize your delay volume and other settings to maintain separation resolution and minimized carryover, which is straightforward with the new fraction collector.
- Check if the fractions are pure and stable before moving on.
Vanquish Fraction Collector.
Vanquish Fraction Collector. How do you think this technology will contribute to advances in biopharmaceuticals?
I think this technology will help accelerate the development process by giving scientists more information on samples, since they will generate data more rapidly and precisely. This LC system — which is true in general for the Vanquish LC product line — is easy to learn and is great for less-trained users focused on science and not the tools.
What’s your favorite thing about being a chromatographer?
I really resonate with the Greek philosopher Democritus and his belief that the smallest things build up the world. Did you know he was the first person to develop the theory of atoms? I’m fascinated to know each tiny substance goes together to make something much bigger, seeing how the little parts make the whole.
If you could be a Vanquish LC system, which one would you be and why?
Haha, that’s a good question. I would definitely be a Vanquish Flex because I like having the ability to adapt to different needs and environments. Kind of like an octopus in the ocean.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not saving the world one analyte at a time?
On my off time and weekends, I’m a youth leader and very engaged in our local mountaineering club. I love explaining our world to young people, out in nature, and getting them excited about saving our planet.
P.S. Don’t forget to say “hello” to our new Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System here!