CAREER: Research and Education in Ambient Mass Spectrometry with Applications in Counterfeit Drug Detection.

该职业奖由化学部门的分析和表面化学项目资助，支持佐治亚理工学院的Facundo Fernandez教授研究和优化质谱（MS）环境电离技术中离子产生机制的工作，应用于露天药物的快速筛选和指纹识别。筛选的目的是检测假药和/或不合格药品。提高对环境电离方法的基本了解将有助于开发更好的检测技术，以鉴定不同类型的假药，并打击和预防这一问题。更广泛地说，这项工作将支持在广泛的潜在应用中更合理地应用环境质谱采样技术。费尔南德斯教授打算通过指导高中教师开发现场比色测试和药物的基本化学分离实验来提高对假药的认识，这些实验将在佐治亚理工学院的“暑期研究营”期间被西班牙裔高中学生使用。他将编写教材，并将开展一系列旨在提高对假药存在的认识水平的非常规活动。活动将包括为医疗界举办的关于“药品制假案例”的巡回研讨会，一个基于网络的信息库，用于分发DESI的化学指纹，以及一个研究生水平的课程，提供对假药的实际分析工作。这些开发新的实验室筛选方法的活动和努力将受益于与佐治亚理工学院地理信息系统中心（GIS）专家的当地合作。

This CAREER award funded by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry program in the Chemistry Division supports work by Professor Facundo Fernandez at the Georgia Institute of Technology to study and optimize the mechanisms of ion production in ambient ionization techniques for mass spectrometry (MS), with applications for rapid screening and fingerprinting of drugs in the open air. Screening will aim at detection of counterfeit and/or substandard drugs. Improved fundamental understanding of ambient ionization methods will enable development of better detection techniques to characterize different types of counterfeit drugs, and to combat and prevent this problem. More broadly, the work will support more rational application of ambient MS sampling techniques in a wide range of potential applications.Professor Fernandez intends to promote increased awareness of fake drugs by guiding high school teachers in the development of field colorimetric tests and basic chemical separation experiments with pharmaceuticals, which will be used later by Hispanic high school students during "Summer Research Camps" at Georgia Tech. He will create teaching materials and will pursue a set of unconventional activities designed to increase the level of awareness regarding the existence of counterfeit drugs. Activities will include traveling seminars on "Case Stories on Drug Counterfeiting" for the medical community, a web-based information repository to distribute DESI chemical fingerprints, and a graduate-level course with hands-on analytical work with fake drugs. These activities and efforts in developing new laboratory-based screening methods will benefit from a local collaboration with experts from the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Center at Georgia Tech.