Mycotoxin laboratory is awarded prestigious Austrian research prize
The Christian Doppler Laboratory for mycotoxin research, at The Department for Agrobiotechnology Tulln (IFA-Tulln) of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, has won the second highest Austrian research prize for its work on screening for mycotoxins in wheat crops. The prestigious Dr Wolfgang Houska Award was open to all scientific and engineering research groups in Austria and the prize of 50,000 euros was given in recognition of the group's development of a fast and reliable method for mycotoxin detection. The new method used a LC/MS/MS System from Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex to simultaneously measure ten different mycotoxins in less than seven minutes. However, since receiving the award, the team has now extended the method to be able to determine as many as 40 mycotoxins in just 40 minutes.
Professor Rudi Krska, Head of the Centre for Analytical Chemistry, explained: "We have developed a novel LC/MS method which allows simultaneous quantification of multitoxins, some of which require ionisation in the negative mode and others in the positive. With the 4000 Q TRAP System we can chromatographically separate the different groups of toxins and easily switch within the run between negative and positive modes. The LC/MS method also allows high selectivity and confirmation of the identity of the compounds, which is a major benefit."
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