Episode 71: In Silico Modeling, 2D-LC & Green Chromatography: Imad Ahmad on the Future of Method Development
In this episode of @ChromatographyTalk , @Organomation General Manager David Oliva sits down with Imad Haidar Ahmad, Scientific Research Director at Amgen leading separations for Discovery Chemistry and Externalization. Imad's career spans Novartis, Merck, and now Amgen, and his research on computer-assisted method development has landed multiple front covers in Analytical Chemistry.We dig into how his group builds retention models from as few as nine lab experiments to map an entire separation landscape — replacing weeks of trial and error with a resolution map you can query and rebuild from. Imad breaks down where this modeling approach struggles (large molecules, SFC, fully autonomous method development), walks through two-dimensional liquid chromatography in plain terms for anyone who's only worked in 1D, and shares the story behind his group's greenness-score mapping work — including where swapping acetonitrile for methanol worked, and where it didn't.We also talk career advice: what a typical day looks like leading a discovery-stage separations team, how undergrad and grad students can bridge the academia-to-industry gap, and what Imad sees as the field's biggest unsolved problem.Topics covered:- 00:00 – Imad's background: polymer analysis, a postdoc with Peter Carr, and the path through Novartis, Merck, and Amgen- 02:00 – How an undergrad project analyzing bread sparked a career in analytical chemistry- 06:00 – A day in the life leading a discovery-stage separations team- 08:00 – Advice for students bridging academia and industry- 12:00 – In silico modeling explained: how nine experiments can map a full separation- 14:00 – Reading a resolution map- 16:00 – Why trial-and-error gets risky at late-stage development- 20:00 – Where modeling breaks down: large molecules, SFC, and the case for autonomous method development- 24:00 – Two-dimensional LC, explained for anyone who's only run 1D- 27:00 – Why 2D-LC adoption has been slow — and what's changing- 29:00 – Mapping analytical greenness across the separation space- 32:00 – Acetonitrile vs. methanol: balancing green chemistry with performance- 35:00 – Advice for students: don't treat HPLC as a black box- 37:00 – The biggest unsolved problem in separation scienceConnect with Imad Haidar Ahmad: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imadhaidarahmad 🎧 Listen to Concentrating on Chromatography on Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/1wZg67rCjoGju4yhqxI3tL?si=n9GLz9zjSCOrVfXPxFPhng🔔 Subscribe for more conversations on chromatography, sample prep, and analytical chemistry.#chromatography #AnalyticalChemistry #HPLC #2DLC #MethodDevelopment #GreenChemistry #Pharma