Latest Debra release incorporates a new module for environmental fate studies

21 February 2014

For users of Debra who are looking more at environmental fate studies, the latest Debra 6.1 release incorporates the previously standalone system Trace as part of its core functionality.

This new module is aimed at solving the problems of isolation of metabolites and residues from matrices, which can be a long and complex process. Indeed, keeping track of the extraction systems used and the calculations necessary to determine the concentration of each component in the extraction system presents a number of problems, all of which are addressed by this new module. It allows the scientist to keep track of complex extraction procedures used to isolate residues and metabolites from samples. These fractions and residues can then be analysed by the typical Debra routes of weighing/LSC counting to ensure recovery of the radioactive sample along each step of the pathway. Final analysis by radiochromatography can be performed to see the major analytes in the sample data from Laura. Chromatograms can be linked to enable reporting of recovery or concentration of these metabolites.

Visual representation of the extraction steps are shown in a sample tree to enable the scientist to see how the pathway of the end-product was isolated.

The key benefits of using Debra to perform this work over manual data entry into spreadsheets are the time savings and accuracy of data recorded with direct data collection from lab instrumentation as well as integration of chromatography data.