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Biological Chemistry

Shimadzu Exhibits 50-Year-Old Gas Chromatograph At Pittcon

by Stu Borman
April 3, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 14

HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS

Today, people around the world face the threat of infectious diseases such as AIDS and avian flu. Because preventing these diseases is far preferable to treating an epidemic, the development of vaccines is desirable. Historically, vaccines have been complex mixtures that were difficult to characterize and often not well-defined. Now, scientists have tools to better define such complicated mixtures. Moreover, subunit vaccines consisting of only a few components that are easier to characterize are becoming more popular. In a symposium at Pittcon, researchers discussed efforts to develop vaccines for a number of diseases, including, in many cases, the associated analytical challenges.

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments marked the 50th anniversary of Japan's first gas chromatograph, the GC-1A, by displaying the instrument behind plexiglas in the company's booth on the Pittcon exposition floor. It is normally kept at Shimadzu???s world headquarters in Kyoto.

The GC-1A "revolutionized the chemical analysis industry" in Japan, according to Shimadzu. Built for petrochemical industry use, it allowed faster analysis of samples than was previously possible, ???enabling plants to adjust their processes for more efficient production. In Japan, which was recovering from World War II at the time, the GC-1A spurred economic growth for Shimadzu,??? the company said, and helped make it a leading Japanese company in petrochemical analysis.

In 1956, the instrument sold for $7,100. Today's value: priceless. But aside from its historical value, the instrument would probably sell for about $142,000 in today's market, the company says.

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