Research funds
In 1988, after a post-doctorate stay with Prof. James Winefordner in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA), María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque (in collaboration with Prof. Guillermo Ramis-Ramos) received her first research funds from a national organism, which allowed them to continue their research on thermo-optical laser spectrophotometries, started at the University of Florida:
Project: “Thermo-optical spectrophotometries: Development of automatic instrumentation and applications”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (DGICYT)
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis-Ramos
Reference: PB87-999 (July 1988, 3 years)
Project: “Photothermal dichrography, a new analytical technique, and other applications of photothermal spectrometry”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (DGICYT)
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis-Ramos
Reference: PB90-425 (August 1991, 3 years)
At the University of Florida, María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque and Guillermo Ramis-Ramos met Dr. Alain Berthod from the University Claude Bernard of Lyon (France), who also belonged to Prof. James Winefordner’s research group. Dr. Alain Berthod is one of the pioneering researchers on micellar liquid chromatography and at that time collaborated with two of the main developers of this technique: Prof. Daniel Armstrong and Prof. John Dorsey. Based on the interest of micellar liquid chromatography for performing the direct injection of physiological samples, María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque and Guillermo Ramis-Ramos started a new research line on drug analysis:
Project: “Development of room-temperature techniques for the control of doping drugs in Sports”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (CICYT)
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis-Ramos
Reference: DEP89-429 (November 1989, 3 years)
Project: “Liquid chromatography in organized media: New applications”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: PB91-629 (June 1992, 3 years)
Analytical methods in micellar liquid chromatography often require mobile phases with two modifiers (surfactant and organic solvent). While developing Project PB91-629, María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque began to be interested in applying and developing interpretive strategies to facilitate the optimization of experimental conditions. This research was assisted by José Ramón Torres-Lapasió (beginning in 1992 during his PhD period) and Juan José Baeza-Baeza (beginning in 1994, once back from his post-doctorate stay with Prof. Horacio Mottola in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, USA). This is the real beginning of the group Fuschrom and the development of a series of tools and approaches to enhance the separations in liquid chromatography. In 1996, Samuel Carda-Broch joined the research group as PhD. student, assisted by Prof. Josep Esteve-Romero from the University Jaume I of Castellón (Spain), who created in 2001 his own research group specialized on micellar liquid chromatography. A number of analytical applications to pharmaceutical, clinical and food samples followed. In 2000, the group started a collaboration with Elizabeth Bosch and Martí Rosés from the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (Spain), specialized on fundamental aspects in liquid chromatography and micellar electrokinetic chromatography.
Project: “Modelling and resolution in micellar liquid chromatography and micellar electrokinetic chromatography: New analytical applications”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: PB94-967 (June 1995, 3 years)
Project: “New strategies to enhance the selectivity in micellar and submicellar liquid chromatography”
Research financing: Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (DGES)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: PB97-1384 (July 1998, 3 years)
Between 1997 and 1998, José Ramón-Torres-Lapasió moved to the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (Belgium) to continue his specialization on Chemometrics with Dr. Desiré Massart. In 2001, María José Ruiz-Ángel joined the group as PhD. student to support the research on basic drugs. In 1998, Dr. Alain Berthod proposed María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque to coauthor with him the book “Micellar liquid chromatography”, which was published in 2000 (edited by Marcel Dekker). This was also the beginning of a collaboration in research up-to-date, especially with María José Ruiz-Ángel and Samuel Carda-Broch, who were granted for a post‑doctorate stay with Dr. Alain Berthod (2001–2003, and 2004–2006, respectively). In 2002, Samuel Carda-Broch stayed with Dr. Alain Berthod during a six-month period with Prof. Daniel Armstrong, at that time in the Department of Chemistry of the Iowa State University in Ames (USA). New research lines on countercurrent chromatography and the use of ionic liquid in analytical methods began. Since 1992, the research group had developed new models to describe the chromatographic behaviour and resolution in micellar liquid chromatography, with the purpose of enhancing the optimization of experimental conditions in liquid chromatography. This research extended to other separation techniques:
Project: “Development of resolution strategies in liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography”
Research financing: Ministry of Science and Technology (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: BQU2001-3047 December 2001, 3 years)
In 1996, the group began to study the chromatographic peak profile. Since 2005, the researchers in the group focused the attention on the fundamental aspects related with the retention mechanisms in the presence of secondary reactions and chromatographic efficiency, among other topics, together with new column and instrumental developments in liquid chromatography, and new optimization approaches:
Project: “Application of chemometrical tools for the study of new generation columns in uni- and multi‑dimensional liquid chromatography”
Research financing: Ministry of Science and Technology (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: CTQ2004-02760/BQU (December 2004, 3 años)
Project: “Development of rapid separations in liquid chromatography using instrumental and chemometrics tools”
Research financing: Ministry of Science and Technology (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: CTQ2007-61828 (October 2007, 3 years)
Project: “Characterization of stationary phases and combination of separation mechanisms in liquid chromatography”
Research financing: Ministry of Science and Innovation (new Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: CTQ2010-16010 (January 2011, 3 years)
In 2000, the group developed a new approach to increase the column performance, based on the optimisation of complementary conditions. The developed research has focused in isocratic separations and complementary mobile phases. In 2012, the research on the optimisation of other multi-condition separation strategies (as the use of serially-connected columns and two-dimensional chromatography) began (Project CTQ2010-16010 and the following):
Project: “Modulation of the selectivity and efficiency in HPLC using multi-column strategies to improve the resolution of complex samples”
Research financing: Ministry of Science and Technology (DGICYT)
Main researchers: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque and José Ramón Torres-Lapasió
Reference: CTQ CTQ2013–42558-P (July 2014, 3 years)
Project: “Multicolumn strategies to improve the performance in the separation of complex samples by liquid chromatography”
Research financing: Direcció General d’Universitat, Investigació I Ciència (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain)
Main researchers: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque
Reference: PROMETEO/2016/128 (January 2016, 4 years)
Project: “Design of methodologies to optimize the separation performance in liquid chromatography”
Research financing: Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque and José Ramón Torres-Lapasió
Reference: CTQ CTQ2016–75644-P (January 2017, 3 years)
Project: “Fundamental studies and design of strategies in one- and two-dimensional chromatography to enhance the separation performance for complex samples”
Research financing: Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (DGICYT)
Main researcher: María Celia García-Álvarez-Coque and José Ramón Torres-Lapasió
Reference: PID2019-106708GB-I00 (January 2020, 3 years)
The group members have received annual support from the University of Valencia for instrumentation failures and running costs, together with research funding from the local Government, coordinated with the group headed by Prof. Guillermo Ramos-Ramos, which is specialized in applied analysis:
Project: “Optimization and applications in liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis”
Research financing: Conselleria de Cultura i Educació de la Generalitat Valenciana
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis-Ramos
Reference: GR00-19 (Septembre 2000)
Project: “Optimization and applications in liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography”
Research financing: Consellería de Cultura, Educació y Ciencia de la Generalitat Valenciana
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis-Ramos
Reference: GR01-63 (October 2001)
Project: “Development of technology and applications in liquid chromatography and electroseparation”
Research financing: Oficina de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Generalitat Valenciana
Main researcher: Guillermo Ramis Ramos
Reference: CTIDIB-2002-226 (July 2002, 2 years)