Troubleshooting
Drift, carryover, poor recovery, matrix effects and failing system suitability. We start from your data and change one variable at a time until the cause shows itself.
Instruments & methods
Methods that validate the first time. Instruments that stay in control.
We troubleshoot GC, HPLC, LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS methods in the matrices your lab runs, develop and validate the ones you’re missing, and help you choose and source the next instrument, new or refurbished, then install and qualify it (IQ/OQ).
Free, 30 minutes, with the people who do the work. No pitch deck.
The problemIn the lab’s own words
Every rerun has a cause. The data usually shows which.
Drift, carryover, poor recovery and matrix effects look like bad luck from the bench. They usually trace back to something specific: a liner, a column, a calibration design, a digestion step. We find which one, fix it, and write the fix into the method so it stays fixed.
“The GC-MS passes calibration, but the check standards drift and the reruns eat the week.”
“Pesticide recoveries pass in flower and fall apart in gummies.”
“We see THCA in the blank after every high-potency concentrate.”
“Lead turns up in the ICP-MS digestion blanks and nobody can say where it comes from.”
What we doInstruments & methods
The methods behind every panel, on the instruments that run them.
Four kinds of work, often in the same engagement: find what’s wrong, build what’s missing, prove it’s valid, and choose what to buy next.
Method development and transfer
New methods, or a vendor application note made to work in your matrices: flower, concentrates, edibles, beverages and topicals.
Method validation
The plan, the experiments and the statistics for accuracy, precision, linearity, selectivity and detection limits, assembled into the package a state auditor reads.
Instrument selection and sourcing
New or refurbished systems specified against your test menu, sample volume and budget. We compare the quotes line by line and get the service and warranty terms in writing before you buy.
Installation, IQ/OQ and maintenance
We install new and refurbished systems and complete the installation and operational qualification (IQ/OQ): documented evidence that the instrument was installed to specification and performs as intended before it runs a regulated sample. Then we set up the maintenance schedule that keeps it there.
How it worksFrom the first call to the fix
Start from the data. End with a method that stays fixed.
The first look costs nothing: bring a recent sequence to the call.
Send the data
A recent sequence with its check standards and blanks, the method, and the maintenance log if there is one. Exports or screenshots both work.
Find the cause
We read the chromatograms and the numbers, then plan short experiments that change one thing at a time.
Fix it and write it down
The fix goes into the method and the SOP with the data that justified it, so the next analyst doesn’t have to rediscover it.
Revalidate only what changed
If the fix touches something the validation relied on, we repeat the affected parameters and update the package.
ProofFigures from our published record
Validated methods, accepted by state auditors.
Our CEO has personally developed ISO/IEC 17025-accredited methods for every category of cannabis testing, and has installed and maintained the instruments they run on. Our own software checks the validation data, so the statistics come back while the question is still fresh.
- Case study · State-licensed cannabis testing labsValidation packages state auditors accepted, in 10+ test categories 10+ · test categories validated
- Case study · Early-stage cannabis testing labsA day of validation analysis, cut to about an hour ~1 hour · validation analysis, down from a day or more
- 10+ test categories validated
- Validation packages accepted by state auditors: microbiology, potency, residual solvents, heavy metals, mycotoxins and more.
- ~1 hour validation analysis, down from a day or more
- Validation architecture for LC-MS, GC-MS and ICP-MS data.
- 0 accreditations lost
- Across every accreditation engagement.
Try itSample data
Every engagement starts with a chromatogram.
This one is sample data. On the call, we look at yours: the peaks, the baseline and the check standards that aren’t where they should be.
Twelve cannabinoids, in the order a C18 column separates them. Select one to read what its peak tells a lab, or read all twelve →
CBDVA cannabidivarinic acid · 1.88 min · not detected
First cannabinoid off the column. Usually absent in THC flower. When it is present, its peak has to clear the solvent front before anyone can quantify it.
CBDV cannabidivarin · 2.09 min · not detected
The neutral form of CBDVA. Not detected here, which is normal for THC-dominant flower.
CBDA cannabidiolic acid · 2.59 min · quantified
The acid form of CBD, so total CBD = CBD + 0.877 × CBDA. A small peak in THC flower; on hemp it is the headline.
CBGA cannabigerolic acid · 2.75 min · quantified
The precursor the plant makes THCA, CBDA and CBCA from. Often the second-largest peak in THC flower.
CBG cannabigerol · 2.91 min · quantified
CBGA after decarboxylation. CBDA, CBGA, CBG and CBD elute within half a minute of each other, so a small drift in the mobile phase can merge them.
CBD cannabidiol · 3.08 min · below LOQ
Near zero in THC-dominant flower. The peak is there, but its signal-to-noise is below the limit of quantitation, so the certificate reports <LOQ.
THCV tetrahydrocannabivarin · 3.39 min · below LOQ
The propyl cousin of Δ9‑THC. Its shorter side chain holds less tightly to C18, so it elutes more than two minutes before Δ9‑THC.
CBN cannabinol · 4.61 min · quantified
Forms as THC oxidizes. A growing CBN peak says the sample is old, or was stored warm or in light.
Δ9-THC delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol · 5.82 min · quantified
The regulated compound. Fresh flower carries little; most of it forms when THCA is heated. Δ8‑THC elutes 0.18 min later, and the method has to keep the two apart.
Δ8-THC delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol · 6.00 min · not detected
Not detected here. Δ8 and Δ9 differ only in where one double bond sits. That makes them a critical pair: a method that cannot resolve them reports one as the other.
CBC cannabichromene · 7.26 min · quantified
Minor in most flower. It elutes 0.35 min before THCA, the largest peak in the run, so an overloaded THCA peak can swallow it.
THCA tetrahydrocannabinolic acid · 7.61 min · quantified
The dominant peak in THC flower. Heat turns it into Δ9‑THC, so labs report total THC = Δ9‑THC + 0.877 × THCA. The 0.877 is the ratio of their molecular weights (314.5 / 358.5).
QuestionsBefore you book
Questions lab directors ask
Which instruments do you work on?
GC-FID, GC-MS, HPLC with UV or diode-array detection, LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS: the instruments behind potency, terpenes, residual solvents, pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals testing.
Can you troubleshoot remotely?
Often, yes. Most causes show up in the data: the sequence, the check standards, the blanks and the chromatograms. When the fix needs hands on the instrument, we plan the experiments with your analysts or come on site.
Do you sell instruments?
We source them, new or refurbished, as part of the work: specified against your test menu and throughput, with the quotes compared and the service and warranty terms in writing before you buy.
Do you handle installation and IQ/OQ?
Yes. We install new and refurbished systems and complete the installation and operational qualification (IQ/OQ), so you have documented evidence that the instrument was installed to specification and performs as intended before it runs a regulated sample. Then we set up the maintenance schedule that keeps it in control.
Will a changed method need revalidation?
If the change touches something the validation relied on, yes, at least in part. We tell you which parameters to repeat and why, so you revalidate what the change requires and nothing more.
What do you need from us to start?
A recent sequence with its check standards and blanks, the method, and the instrument’s maintenance log if you keep one. The call is enough to decide whether it’s worth sending.
Start with one problem
Which instrument is costing you the most reruns?
Bring a recent sequence to a 30-minute call. We’ll tell you where we’d look first.