An apparatus is disclosed comprising a first device for generating aerosol, smoke or vapour from one or more regions of a target, an inlet conduit to an ion analyser or mass spectrometer, the inlet conduit having an inlet through which the aerosol, smoke or vapour passes, and a Venturi pump arrangement arranged and adapted to direct the aerosol, smoke or vapour towards the inlet.

The present invention relates to methods of determining if a subject has an increased risk of suffering from memory impairment. The methods comprise analyzing at least one plasma sample from the subject to determine a value of the subject's lipidomic profile, and comparing the value of the subject's lipidomic profile with the value of a normal lipidomic profile. A decrease in the value of the subject's lipidomic profile over normal values is indicative that the subject has an increased risk of suffering from memory impairment compared to a normal individual.

An apparatus for mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed comprising a first device arranged and adapted to generate aerosol, smoke or vapour from a target and one or more second devices arranged and adapted to aspirate aerosol, smoke, vapour and/or liquid to or towards an analyser. A liquid trap or separator is provided to capture and/or discard liquid aspirated by the one or more second devices.

The invention relates to a glycopolypeptide that includes one or more modified amino acid residues having a sidechain comprising a monosaccharide or an oligosaccharide, wherein the glycopolypeptide binds specifically to a carbohydrate-binding monoclonal antibody with an affinity of less than 100 nM. Immunogenic conjugates that include the glycopolypeptide, and pharmaceutical compositions that include the glycopolypeptide or the immunogenic conjugate are also disclosed. Various method of using the glycopolypeptides, immunogenic conjugates, and pharmaceutical compositions are disclosed, including inducing an immune response, inhibiting viral or bacterial infection, treating a cancerous condition, and detecting a neutralizing antibody.

The invention relates to a method for selecting a glycopolypeptide that binds to a target protein, the method including the steps of providing a pool of glycopolypeptides fused via puromycin linker to an encoding mRNA-cDNA duplex; combining the pool with a target protein to form a mixture; incubating the mixture for a period of time sufficient to allow any target protein to bind to one or more of the glycopolypeptides, thereby forming glycopolypeptide-target protein complexes; and isolating from the mixture the glycopolypeptide-target protein complexes, thereby identifying a plurality of selected glycopolypeptides.

The present invention provides a method for the assay of synucleins in a body fluid or tissue sample, wherein said method comprises the steps of contacting said sample with membrane lipids under conditions enabling binding of the synuclein to said lipids, and the detection of the lipid-bound synuclein by a synuclein-binding agent.

The present disclosure is directed to the use of microvirin-N in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

The present disclosure generally relates to a system for monitoring and/or controlling the delivery of one or more organic carbon compounds to a wastewater treatment system. The system comprises a bio-electrochemical sensor to monitor metabolic activity of a population of exo-electrogenic bacteria and provide an electrical output corresponding with the metabolic activity, the bio-electrochemical sensor comprising an electrode pair and a power source to deliver a voltage across the electrode pair, and an electrical output analyzer to analyze the electrical output and correlate the electrical output with a value representing the amount of the one or more organic carbon compounds in the wastewater treatment system. A method and sensor for monitoring and/or controlling the delivery of one or more organic carbon compounds to a wastewater treatment system are also provided.

A method is disclosed comprising providing a biological sample on a swab, directing a spray of charged droplets onto a surface of the swab in order to generate a plurality of analyte ions, and analysing the analyte ions.

Advantage is taken of macrolide antibiotics' complexation with free cholesterol to yield fluorescent complexes to determine the levels of free cholesterol, total cholesterol, or lecithin: cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) in serum or plasma or fractions thereof.