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the attitude survey, 62.2% reported that they felt they were able to learn chemical concepts by interactive vi- deo in less time than would have been required in the lab and 65.9% felt that the lessons helped them to learn chemistry. When asked to give a letter grade to the lab experiments and the interactive video lessons, 50.3% of the students gave the ex- periments one of the two highest grades (A or B), while 60.1% gave interactive video lessons an A or B grade. 87.8% reported that they would like to experience a mixture of interactive video instruction and ac- tual laboratory work in the course. Responses to a similar questionnaire used in the following semester were even more positive6.

Conclusion The results of this investigation

suggest that these interactive video lessons can be used to train students to use analytical instruments and to introduce them to experiences not otherwise possible in the instruc- tional laboratory. The hour exam re- sults suggest that these lessons can enhance student comprehension of laboratory procedures and their abil-

ity to apply this learning to new situa- tions. The interactive video technol- ogy was also successfully used to in- troduce important applications such as air chemistry and air analysis into a course without requiring additional lecture time. Computer-based sim- ulations can provide some of these experiences, but the use of moving video images allows accurate color and a wealth of detail not possible with present computer animation methods.

As additional interactive video les- sons become available, they will be incorporated into the program so that eventually general chemistry students will alternate weeks of labo- ratory work with weeks of interactive video lessons. Laboratory teaching assistants will have more time to work with individual students and fewer reports to grade. Since it is im- portant that the time spent in the lab- oratory be used efficiently, new and more ambitious laboratory experi- ments are being created. These ex- periments will take advantage of the interactive video preparation to pro- vide students with more challenging laboratory experiences than were previously possible.

trends in analytical chemistry, vol. 7, no. 8, 1988

Acknowledgement The meticulous laboratory obser-

vations made by Jennifer Karloski and the helpful collaboration of the course director Elaine Mueller are gratefully acknowledged. The work described in this paper was sup- ported by funds from IBM and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. References 1 The Videodisc Monitor, 6 (NO. 5)

(1988) 29. (Published by Future Sys- tems, Inc.).

2 A. A. Russell, M. G. Staskun and B. L. Mitchell, J. Chem. Education, 62 (1985) 420.

3 S. G. Smith and L. L. Jones, Perspec- tives in Computing, 6 (1986) 20. (Pub- lished by COM Press, P.O. Box 102, Wentworth, NH 03282, U.S.A.).

4 L. L. Jones, J. L. Karloski and S. G. Smith, Academic Computing, 2 (1987) 36.

5 S. G. Smith, L. L. Jones and M. L. Waugh, J. Computer-Based Instruc- tion, 13 (1986) 117.

6 L. L. Jones, Proceedings of the Optical Information Systems Conference, De- cember, 1987, p. 157.

Loretta L. Jones is at the University of Illi- nois at Urbana-Campaign, 103 Chemistry Annex, 601 St. Mathews Avenue, Ur- bana, IL 61801, U.S.A.

ANABIOTEC ‘88

A report on the 2nd International Symposium on Analytical Meth- ods and Problems in Biotechnolo- gy, held in Noordwijkerhout, The

ANABIOTEC ‘88 was the second symposium in the series ‘Analytical Methods and Problems in Biotechno- logy’. The objective of the first sym- posium was: “. . . to build a bridge between, on the one hand, analytical chemistry with a multitude of ad- vanced methods of analysis at its dis- posal and, on the other hand, bio- technology with its increasing need for more insight into parameters gov-

erning the bioprocess”‘. This bridge function between analytical chemis- try and biotechnology is the main theme of the ANABIOTEC sympo- sia. The aims of ANABIOTEC ‘88 were twofold: to describe the (lack of) progress which has been made in analytical biotechnology since the previous conference four years ago; and to describe emerging fields which have relevance for analytical biotechnology.

The majority of the methods pre- sented at ANABIOTEC ‘84 origi- nated from analytical (bio)chem- istry. These methods were often based upon advanced, well-known techniques such as HPLC, UV, VIS, or IR spectroscopy, NMR, or mass

spectrometry. There is now a (re)dis- covery and development of new ana- lytical methods and tools taking place within the discipline of biotech- nology itself. These methods and tools are based upon the specificity and selectivity of several types of biochemical selectors such as en- zymes, antibodies and DNA-probes, or in the near future, perhaps even synthetic compounds.

The application of enzymes in ana- lytical biotechnology is usually in combination with either biosensors or flow injection analysis. The al- ready proven potentials of antibod- ies, have been extended from the clinic to biotechnology. Their poten- tials in, for example, process control

trends in analytical chemistry, vol. 7, no. 8,1988

were presented by Mattiasson. Their intensive and ever increasing appli- cations in the food industry are also obvious. The applications of DNA probes were described by Normark. These probes, as is the case for anti- bodies, are already commonly used in a clinical environment, and there is increasing interest from the food industry.

There is still a question whether biosensors will ever be more than of academic interest. After the initial enthusiasm generated by the ex- pected performance of these devices, perhaps due to .the ease in which a functional working lab-model could be constructed, a more moderate view is perhaps realistic. Two inter- esting remarks were made during the meeting which are worth quoting: developing biosensors is more than ‘throwing biochemistry on sensors’ and, secondly, optical and/or acous- tic based (immuno)sensors might one day become commonly used.

Flow injection analysis (FIA) is a technique frequently used in combi- nation with process control. The (dis)advantages over comparable techniques used in process control such as HPLC and continuous flow analysis were discussed by Schugerl. Despite its already proven potentials and its generally assumed cheapness, at present this method is per com- mercial available analysis line as ex- pensive as HPLC. As mentioned above, FIA ‘is frequently used in combination with enzymes.

Chromatographic techniques, es- pecially GC or GC-MS, often in combination with headspace analy- sis, are frequently used in process control. HPLC has gained impor- tance as an analytical tool, especially in conjunction with proteinaceous drugs produced by recombinant DNA where the purity of the product is a prime criterion as Horvath re- ported. Because of the small quanti- ties available the manipulation and analysis of picomole quantities re- quire special adaptations.

Sessions were also held on ‘online process control in analytical (bio)technology. Here the link be- tween process and bioprocess control was discussed. There was an open session where problems, questions

and suggestions towards analytical biotechnology could be put forward.

Several other important issues in analytical biotechnology were raised in lectures or posters: sampling strat- egies, capillary zone electrophoresis, and quality control of rDNA prod- ucts .

The symposium was attended by 170 scientists from approximately 30 countries including Australia, Cana- da, Cuba, the U.S.A. and Japan. The number of Swedish participants was 30. More than one-third of the audience came from industry. Ap- proximately 25 lectures and 50 post- ers were presented. Some 15 repre- sentatives of companies specialized in scientific instrumentation took part in the technical exhibition. Al- though the number of attendees was fifty percent that of the previous

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symposium, the ANABIOTEC sym- posia will continue. A meeting will be held every two years, alternating between The Netherlands and the U.S.A. ANABIOTEC ‘90 will be held 28-31 October 1990 in San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

C. VAN DIJK and B. TE NIJENHUIS

Reference 1 B. te Nijenhuis, Trends Anal. Chem.,

3 (9) (1984) 221.

C. van Dijk is at TNO, P.O. Box 217, Schoenmakerstraat 97, Delft, The Nether- lands. B. te Nijenhuis is at Int. Bio-Synthetics, Patentlaan 3, 2288 EE Rijswijk, The Ne- therlands.

Biochemische Analytik 88

A repot-l on the 11 th International Conference on Biochemical Anal-

The conference covered a wide scope of analytical developments in biochemistry, characterized by a multitude of improvements in speci- ficity, reliability, sensitivity and handling. More than 1500 partici- pants attended the thirteen symposia on: data processing and information in analysis; modern aspects of HIV research; analysis and pathobiochem- istry of bioactive peptides; analytical aspects of the preparation and disin- fection of swimmingpool water; modern methods of gene analysis; al- ternatives to the use of radioactivity in biochemical analysis; analysis and pathobiochemistry of malignant dis- eases; the biochemistry and analysis of neuroreceptors; modern analyti- cal methods in food chemistry and fo- rensic chemistry; water quality mon- itoring and environmental protec- tion; analytical possibilities of sepa- ration techniques based on magnetic beads; analysis in organ transplanta-

tion; in vivo analysis with biosensors. The Biochemical Analysis 1988

prize was awarded to Charles R. Cantor (New York) and David Schwartz (Baltimore) for their work on pulse-field electrophoresis and to Alex J. Jeffreys (Leicester) for the development of the DNA finger- printing method. While the combina- tion of genetic and molecular biology has led to a detailed understanding of the function of genes in microorga- nisms, it has proven difficult to ex- tend this research to higher orga- nisms. The major problem is the size of the mammalian genome and the abundance of repetitive sequences. This entailed a methodological gap between the resolution of the genetic and cytogenetic techniques and the range covered by molecular cloning and DNA analysis. This gap has now been extensively narrowed: whereas conventional electrophoresis meth- ods permitted the separation and analysis of nucleic acids only up to a size of 20 000 to 30 000 basepairs, ‘pulsed-field’ electrophoresis now permits the separation of DNA frag- ments containing up to 2 000 000 basepairs, and even of small chromo-