{"id":3145,"date":"2022-10-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/analyteguru\/helping-develop-world-class-hplc-instruments-an-interview-with\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:22:21","slug":"helping-develop-world-class-hplc-instruments-an-interview-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/analyteguru\/helping-develop-world-class-hplc-instruments-an-interview-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Develop World-Class HPLC Instruments: An Interview with Dr. Susanne Fabel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dr. Susanne Fabel is an HPLC Product Marketing Manager in the Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry group at Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in Germering, Germany.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Susanne Fabel<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Her invaluable contributions include the birth of the Thermo Scientific\u2122 Vanquish\u2122 Horizon UHPLC System in 2014, and continuously improving the performance of the Vanquish platform by deep-diving simultaneously in all the Thermo Scientific\u2122 Chromeleon\u2122 Chromatography Data System<\/a> (CDS) software features.<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s not working, you\u2019ll likely find her teaching children about our planet or \u2014 because she is such an avid outdoorswoman \u2014 climbing a mountain.<\/p>\n

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Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System.<\/p><\/div>\n

Vanquish Analytical Purification LC System. <\/span><\/span>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\u2122 Vanquish\u2122 Analytical Purification LC System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kimberly Lincoln: <\/strong>Introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us a little bit about your professional background, education and how you ended up in analytical science.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Susanne Fabel<\/strong>: I have a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Technische Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen and my undergraduate diploma in chemistry.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s when I was first introduced to HPLC analysis.<\/p>\n

I really fell in love with how intertwined physics and chemistry are in separation science. I\u2019ve always liked the combination of chemistry and physics, which is the reason why I\u2019m not an organic chemist or \u201ccook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

At what age did you become interested in science and what\u2019s your best memory of exploring science as a kid?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll 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 \u201cvolcano mountain\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

And then from there, I started making bottle rockets with vinegar and baking soda.<\/p>\n

Some really good memories!<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been with Thermo Fisher Scientific for 15 years and helped support the launch and growth of the Vanquish LC system portfolio. What\u2019s the most rewarding aspect of being directly involved in the design and development of these products?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019ve enjoyed most over the last 15 years is seeing our customers reach new milestones as a result of our Vanquish LC instrument technology.<\/p>\n

Your most recent product contribution is the launch of our Thermo Scientific\u2122 Vanquish\u2122 Analytical Purification LC System featuring the new integrated Thermo\u2122 Scientific\u2122 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the most notable thing is the combined separation power of our Vanquish LC Systems<\/a> with the high performance and high resolution of the Vanquish Fraction Collector<\/a>. Our customers will now be able to get pinpoint purifications with precision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This LC purification instrument is unique in quite a few ways:<\/p>\n

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  • 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\u2122 Viper\u2122<\/a> Fingertight Fitting technology.<\/li>\n
  • Fast moving parts like the valve switching and fraction collection needle, means you can collect single peaks sharply and as high-yield, purer fractions \u2014 less optimized instruments can\u2019t give you the same purity.<\/li>\n
  • You can automatically press a button to measure the delay volume, which will lead to faster results and purer compounds.<\/li>\n
  • Integration of the Vanquish platform with Thermo\u2122 Scientific\u2122 Chromeleon CDS software<\/a> walks you through system set and wizards for method setup, making it easy for new users to learn and set up.<\/li>\n
  • Generating automatic data reports is simple and customers can easily adapt the report to their needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Having ultra-pure compounds also allows you to carry out structural characterizations with nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry and even cryogenic electron microscopy.<\/p>\n

    To learn more how the Vanquish can help you in your upstream and downstream processes, watch this YouTube whiteboard video.<\/a><\/p>\n