AOAC Recognition Highlights Vaast™ Potential for Challenging Amino Acid Analysis in Food Science
West Chester, PA – Daicel Chiral Technologies is pleased to announce that Weston Umstead, Ph.D., our Director of Operations and Development, and Jay Ferraro, our Production and Laboratory Manager, were recognized as a winner of this year’s AOAC poster competition for their research featuring Vaast™, Daicel’s analytical platform for challenging amino acid separations.
Wes and Jay’s poster was recognized for its strength in experimental design, data collection, scientific content, and presentation, earning distinction among the work presented at the conference.
The recognition highlights the growing interest in Vaast and its potential applications in food analysis, where accurate characterization of amino acids and related compounds can present complex analytical challenges.
The response from the AOAC community further underscored this interest. During the conference, Umstead was approached by multiple attendees about whether the work could be submitted to AOAC for consideration by its working groups. The discussions reflected strong interest in the scientific approach and its potential relevance to analytical methods in the food industry.
“We were encouraged by the level of interest in the work and the conversations it generated at AOAC,” said Dr. Umstead. “The response reinforced what we have believed about Vaast’s potential in food analysis and opened the door to conversations about where this technology could provide value.”
Vaast combines chiral and ion-exchange selectivity to provide an alternative approach for challenging amino acid separations. Its capabilities include the analysis of chiral and achiral amino acids and can provide additional selectivity for applications where conventional approaches may not fully address the analytical challenge.
“We’re excited to see the scientific community recognize the quality of this work and, equally importantly, to see the interest it is generating around real-world analytical applications,” added Dr. Umstead. “This recognition is an important milestone as we continue exploring how Vaast can support more challenging amino acid and food-analysis workflows.”
If you’re interested in exploring new approaches for food analysis, contact our team to discuss how Vaast can help address challenging amino acid separations.
About Daicel Chiral Technologies
Daicel Chiral Technologies is the world’s most trusted source of chiral chromatography solutions for optical isomer separation. Pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers around the globe rely on Daicel’s technology to help solve their most critical separation challenges, driving innovation across drug development and scientific research.
