Unlike its competitors, which hail from Europe as well as traditional high-tech corridors on the U.S. coasts, LECO's "coast" is Lakeview Avenue on Lake Michigan, where it has produced technologically advanced products and solutions for more than 75 years. Its current lineup includes high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HR-TOFMS) for liquid and gas chromatography, as well as comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography, all of which use the company's ChromaTOF operating software. Product lines also include high-quality analytical instrumentation, metallography and optical equipment and consumables. LECO has more than 30 subsidiaries worldwide, with additional distributors authorized to sell or service LECO products to the rest of the world.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses some of the world 's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health and creating new materials. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages the lab for the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

"Berkeley Lab was interested in our technology, and we at LECO wanted to work with high-impact metabolomics," says Dr. Jeff Patrick, director of marketed technology at LECO Separation Science.

Patrick will act as liaison to ensure Berkeley's ongoing access to LECO's R&D and analytical technology. Designed for complex sample analysis, LECO's HRT instrumentation provides acquisition speeds of up to 200 spectra/second, mass resolution up to 100,000 FWHM and mass accuracy less than 1 ppm—all specifications that are industry-leading, Patrick states.

"We introduced our high-resolution system last year at Pittcon, and it received the Pittcon editors' award for technology," he notes.