I am writing to bring you up to date on the Molecular Microspectroscopy Laboratory and I am happy to report that the MML had its best year with respect to contract research. During the past year we have collaborated with 35 industrial partners and continue significant efforts with Eastman Kodak Company, Indiana University School of Medicine-Department of Anatomy, Perkin Elmer Corporation, Procter and Gamble Company, and Smiths Detection.

In June we had planned to hold our eighteenth workshop on molecular microspectroscopy. However, due to a poor initial response, the workshop was rescheduled for June 19–22, 2006. Enclosed with this letter is a copy of the short course brochure and application form, which may also be found on our website at (www.muohio.edu/mml). Please pass along the brochure to any interested colleagues and remember that in order for us to present a successful workshop we need to have a majority of the students registered by April 7.

Research within the MML has been conducted with the help of three graduate students and several undergraduate students. Graduate student, Jen Anderson, continues her work with Dr. Andy Evan and other scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine to better understand kidney stone formation and pathology. She continues her work on the quantitative aspects of two and three component systems and has also finished a study on how best to analyze cross-sectioned kidney stones. The results of her work have been published in a variety of publications and were presented at the International Conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy (ICAVS) this past summer.

Graduate student, Luis Lavalle, has continued the work using immersion lenses for attenuated total internal reflection Raman microspectroscopy. This method should be extremely surface sensitive and Luis is currently verifying the sensitivity through a variety of experiments. Luis also presented the results of this work at ICAVS in August. Finally, Luis has begun a study comparing ATR infrared imaging microspectroscopy with immersion imaging infrared microspectroscopy. Part of this research will involve the development of a spatial resolution standard for infrared microspectroscopy.

The infrared spectrograph project that Marina, myself, undergraduate Zack Keltner, and our collaborators at Procter and Gamble have been working on made significant progress this past fall. During the summer we realized that the dispersion of a grating spectrograph was far too high to yield sufficient wavenumber coverage. As a result, we decided to use a NaCl prism as the dispersing element, which has lower dispersion. This approach was tested in October and worked very well. So well in fact that two weeks later we had interfaced an IRPLAN microscope to the spectrograph. The microscope system allowed us to collect infrared spectra of 10 micrometer samples with the potential for very high temporal resolution. Curt Marcott of Procter and Gamble reported on these results at the Eastern Analytical Symposium and I will be presenting a more detailed study of the microscope system at the Pittsburgh Conference (paper 370-1).

Reports of other research efforts, which were published this past year and/or submitted for publication, are listed below:

"Nephrolithiasis and Nephrocalcinosis in Rats with Small Bowel Resection", R. C. O'Connor, A. P. Evan, S. Meehan, E. M. Worcester, D. Kuznetsov, B. Laven, A. J. Sommer, S. B. Bledsoe, J. H. Parks, F. L. Coe and G. S. Gerber, Urological Research 33: 105-115 (2005).

"A Concerted Protocol for the Analysis of Mineral Deposits in Biopsied Tissue Using Infrared Microanalysis", J. Anderson, J. Dellomo, A. J. Sommer, A. P. Evan, and S. Bledsoe, Urological Research 33: 213-219 (2005).

"Crystal Associated Nephropathy in Patients with Brushite Nephrolithiasis", A. P. Evan, J. E Lingeman, F. L. Coe, Y. Shao, J. H. Parks, S. B. Bledsoe, A. J. Sommer, R. F. Paterson, R. L. Kuo, S. Kim and M. Grynpas, Kidney International 67, 576-591 (2005).

"Analysis of Renal Stone Samples Using an Infrared Microspectroscopic Reflectance Imaging Technique", J. Anderson, J. Dellomo, A. J. Sommer, A. Evan and S. Bledsoe, to be submitted to Urological Research, 2006.

We will once again be exhibiting in Spectroscopy Central at this year's Pittsburgh Conference in Orlando and our booth number is 2304. Participating members in Spectroscopy Central include The Coblentz Society, Infrared Analysis Inc., MML, and Pike Technologies. Should you be attending the exposition, please stop by and visit.

Finally, I would like to welcome Adam Lanzarotta as the newest graduate student in the MML. Adam joined the MML in September and will be involved in the development of the spectrograph based microscope for chromatographic applications.

In closing, should you need our assistance or further information, please feel free to contact us. As always, we would like to thank you for your continued interest and support.

Andre' J. Sommer, Director