— For labs
The method your team has already tried to fix.
Most method problems get misdiagnosed at least once, and the instrument takes the blame for something upstream. Finding the real cause is the work. I come to your lab, work on your instruments, and train your people on the methods they actually run.
How a day in your lab runs
What gets covered, what your team is doing while I am there, and what you keep afterwards.
Training in your lab
Your instruments, your methods, your matrices
Whoever runs the instrument learns to set it up, run it, read what comes off it, keep it maintained, and work out what is wrong when it stops behaving. On the hardware they use every day, with the samples they actually see. Sample preparation, HPLC, LC-MS and the analytical fundamentals underneath all three.
A day is usual. Two or three days when the team is larger or the ground to cover is wider. Your people keep a written reference built around what we worked on.
Sending one or two people instead?
Fundamentals run online with a chromatography simulator, so nobody needs instrument time to learn the theory. Workshops are open to individuals.
See the training options →Method development and troubleshooting
When the method has failed and the obvious fixes have not worked
A method that stopped working, one that will not transfer between systems, or a new one that has to be built from nothing. Poor recovery, sensitivity that drifts, peak shape that will not come right, carryover, matrix effects. The cause is often in the sample preparation, and that is usually the last place a lab looks.
You get the cause, the fix, and a written rationale your team can keep and defend.
Scope and project pricing →Choosing an instrument
Before you spend six figures on the wrong configuration
Whether the work you have actually needs LC-MS or an HPLC will do, which detector, which configuration, what the running cost looks like after the quote, and what a service contract is really covering. I have run these instruments across five sectors and I have seen what gets bought and then sits idle.
I do not sell instruments and I take nothing from the manufacturer, so the answer is sometimes that you do not need one yet.
Lab operations
Monitoring, equipment and inventory
The half your LIMS never sees: freezer and chamber monitoring, calibration records, reagent stock, and an audit trail that holds up when someone asks for it. Independent help working out what you need before a vendor sells you a platform, and help getting the process around it to work.
See lab operations →Who I work with
- Labs that own an HPLC or LC-MS and have no chromatographer on staff
- Natural health product manufacturers
- Cannabis, food, and environmental testing labs
- Biology and discovery groups running LC work
- Academic core facilities
- Contract labs and smaller QC teams
What labs said afterwards
Client quotes go here. Outcomes from past projects are on the consulting page in the meantime.
What happens if you get in touch
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01
A call, about 30 minutes
Which instruments, how old, what software, how many people and what they already know. And the question that matters most: what made you get in touch now.
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02
A scoped quote, next day
What we would cover, how many days, the rate, and what is not included. If what you need is method work rather than training, I will say so and quote that instead.
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03
A date, held by deposit
A deposit holds the day. Single days can be paid in full. Nothing is booked until you have the scope in writing.
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04
The day itself, in your lab
Your hardware, your methods, the matrices you actually run. Your team keeps a written reference built around what we worked on.
Booking
$1,000 to $2,500 a day, scoped to your group size and depth.
Multi-day blocks come down a little. Book a 30-minute call and tell me your instruments, your team size, and the problems you want covered. I'll send a quote and a proposed plan. No obligation.
Method work is quoted by the project rather than by the day. The project tiers are here.
Questions I get asked
- What does a day cost?
- Between $1,000 and $2,500 CAD per day, scoped to how many analysts are in the room and how deep we go. Multi-day blocks come down a little. I quote the day, not a per-person fee.
- We could train our people internally. Why bring someone in?
- Often you can, and you should. The question I'd ask is how long the problem has already been open. A day of focused training usually costs less than the weeks it has been costing you.
- Can you guarantee results?
- I guarantee the people I train leave able to do the thing we scoped. I can't guarantee they'll practise it afterwards. That part sits with the lab.
- What is not included?
- I don't write your SOPs from scratch, I don't provide ongoing remote support, and I don't execute your validation. Those are separate pieces of work, and I'd rather scope them properly than let them creep into a training day.
- Do you train on our instruments or bring your own?
- Yours. That is the point. The training runs on the instruments your people use every day, with your methods and the matrices you actually see.
- Where do you travel?
- On-site across the Greater Toronto Area from Mississauga. Remote sessions work for the parts that do not need hands on hardware.
Who you're working with
I did my Ph.D. in Janusz Pawliszyn's lab at Waterloo, where SPME was invented, and I've spent the 14 years since in pharmaceutical, CRO, environmental and natural-product labs. Most of that time was method development and validation on LC-MS and HPLC. I've trained 200+ scientists and published 18 peer-reviewed papers. Based in Mississauga, on-site across the GTA, remote elsewhere.