Professor Colin Creaser

Colin Creaser was educated in Uganda and in the UK, at Lancing College and the University of Kent. He has held appointments at the University of California at Santa Barbara; the Harwell Laboratory; the University of East Anglia and Nottingham Trent University. He was appointed Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Loughborough University in 2007 and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor in 2017.

He is an active member of the British Mass Spectrometry Society (BMSS Chair/Vice-Chair, 2013-15) and is a member of the BMSS Advisory Board.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Chartered Chemist (FRSC, CChem), he served as President of the RSC Analytical Division/Analytical Science Community and Chair of the Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund from 2002-2004. He is a former Chair of the RSC Analytical Methods Committee and is a Trustee of the associated Analytical Methods Trust.

Mass spectrometry and Ion mobility Spectrometry

The development and application of mass spectrometry (MS) combined with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS)/differential mobility spectrometry (DMS). Of particular interest is the development of miniaturised FAIMS combined with MS and tandem FAIMS-MS configurations.

Ion mobility/mass spectrometry methods are applied to targeted and non-targeted metabolomics for the discovery and validation of biomarkers (metabolites that vary in concentration in biofluids, such as saliva, urine and plasma, in response to disease or physiological state). Combining ion mobility spectrometry with mass spectrometry reduces background interferences, increases the number of compounds detected in biofluids and facilitates the separation of isomeric and isobaric compounds not resolved by mass spectrometry alone.

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Chartered Chemist (FRSC, CChem).
• President of the RSC Analytical Division/Analytical Science Community and Chair of the Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund (2002-2004)
• Chair of the RSC Analytical Methods Committee and Co-opted member of RSC Analytical Division Council (2019-20)
• Trustee of the Analytical Methods Trust (2005-)
• Member of the British Mass Spectrometry Society (BMSS).
• Chair/Vice-chair of BMSS (2013-15); Papers Secretary (2012-2014)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the British Mass Spectrometry Society (2017-)

Selected publications

1. Combined hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-scanning field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry-time-of-flight mass spectrometry for untargeted metabolomics, Szykula, K.M., Meurs, J., Turner, M.A., Creaser, C.S., Reynolds, J.C., Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2019, doi:10.1007/s00216-019-01790-6.
2. Recommendations for reporting ion mobility Mass Spectrometry measurements, Gabelica, V., et al., Mass Spectrometry Reviews, 2019, 38, 291-2320.
3. Characterization of crude oil and its saturate, aromatic and resin fractions by high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry – high resolution mass spectrometry, Szykula, K.M., Wicking, C., Whitmarsh, S., Creaser, C.S., Reynolds, J.C., Energy & Fuels, 2018, 32, 11310-11316.
4. The determination of salivary oxypurines before and after exercise by combined liquid chromatography-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry-time-of-flight mass spectrometry, Arthur, K.L., Wilson L.S., Turner, Lindley M.R., Reynolds, J.C., Creaser, C.S., International Journal for Ion Mobility Spectrometry, 2018, 21, 87-95.
5. Increasing peak capacity in non-targeted omics applications by combining full scan field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, Arthur, K.L., Turner, M.A., Reynolds, J.C., Creaser, C.S., Analytical Chemistry, 2017, 89, 3452-3459.
6. Rapid analysis of anabolic steroid metabolites in urine by combining field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, Arthur, K.L., Turner, M.A., Brailsford, A.D., Kicman, A.T., Cowan, D.A., Reynolds, J.C., Creaser, C.S., Analytical Chemistry, 2017, 89, 7431-7437.
7. Analysis of supramolecular complexes of 3-methylxanthine with field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry combined with mass spectrometry, Arthur, K.L., Eiceman, G.A., Reynolds, J.C., Creaser, C.S., Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2016, 27, 800-809.
8. Direct analysis of oil additives by high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry combined with electrospray ionization and desorption electrospray ionization, Da Costa, C., Turner, M., Reynolds, J.C., Whitmarsh, S., Lynch, T., Creaser, C.S., Analytical Chemistry, 2016, 88, 2453-2458.
9. Untargeted metabolic profiling of saliva by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the identification of potential diagnostic biomarkers of asthma, Malkar, A., Wilson, E., Harrison, T., Shaw, D., Creaser, C.S., Analytical Methods, 2016, 8, 5407-5413.
10. Metabolic profiling of human saliva before and after induced physiological stress by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-ion mobility-mass spectrometry, Malkar, A., Devenport, N.A., Martin, H.J., Patel, P., Turner, M.A., Reid, H.J., Sharp, B.L., Thomas, C.L.P., Reynolds, J.C., Creaser, C.S., Watson, P., Maughan, R.J., Metabolomics, 2013, 9, 1192-1201.