Calgary, AB - The Dynamic Reaction Cell™ has galvanized the scientific world by making possible previously unheard of, exceedingly difficult or costly atomic-level analyses of chemical elements. Now the DRC's inventors, Scott Tanner and Vladimir Baranov, both scientists at MDS SCIEX in Concord, Ont., have received the prestigious $25,000 Manning Award of Distinction.

Tanner and Baranov are experts in ion-molecule chemistry, a field that has been important in understanding radio communications and the matter that makes up inter-stellar space. But up to now, commercial applications for ion-molecule chemistry have been largely unrealized.

Tanner and Baranov have changed all that. Their Dynamic Reaction Cell™ ingeniously employs ion-molecule chemistry and physics to eliminate unwanted chemical interference during analysis of trace levels of chemical elements. The DRC is used in an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, an instrument that breaks apart and analyzes matter at the atomic level. The DRC enables scientists to use this mass spectrometer for the first time to detect important elements in gases, liquids and solids that, up to now, have been beyond the instrument's capability.

"Canadians are really world experts in ion molecule chemistry," says Tanner, 48. "This is the first real, honest-to-goodness analytical application of ion-molecule chemistry."

"This development has actually opened up new applications for Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometers (ICP-MS) that were never dreamed of," says Baranov, 41.

The ICP-MS instrument can detect chemical elements in gases, liquids and solids at extremely tiny concentrations - to 1/100 of a part per trillion. Commercial ICP-MS units, in use since 1983, are deployed in the environmental testing, geological, medical and semi-conducting manufacturing sectors.

But the ICP-MS's capability to analyze some common, fundamentally important and sometimes toxic chemical elements - such as calcium, iron, potassium and arsenic - has been severely limited. The spectrometer uses a plasma or super-heated "ball" of gas to break apart matter, creating chemical byproducts that interfere with the detection of certain elements and makes their analysis impossible.

Tanner and Baranov's Dynamic Reaction Cell™ resolves this problem. MDS SCIEX, with marketer and service partner PerkinElmer, now have sold more than 100 ELAN DRC mass spectrometers worldwide, for use in semi-conductor manufacturing, medical analysis, food safety, geological dating and other applications. That amounts to sales of over US$25 million.

"Their invention of the DRC is an excellent example of the application of fundamental science to the development of a successful commercial instrument, through an unusual combination of technologies inspired by an innovative leap out of the conventional," says Diethard Bohme, Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at York University.

Tanner and Baranov have won this year's CanWest Global Communications Corporation $25,000 Manning Award of Distinction. The awards have recognized leading Canadian innovators since 1982 with $135,000 in annual prize money. The Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards Foundation is announcing all of this year's recipients, including the $100,000 Manning Principal Award, throughout September prior to the awards gala Oct. 1 in Calgary.