We develop new
techniques for analysis of drug levels and novel measurements
to detect liver disease. Our main working horse is
capillary electrophoresis.
Drugs and their metabolites are measured in body
fluids such as blood or urine. These measurement are
helpful to physicians to optimize use of drugs, i.e.
to determine the right dose for an individual patient.
Some measurements are also helpful in management of
intoxication or to assess liver function. In drug
development, measurements of drug levels are essential
to our understanding of how the body metabolizes and
eliminates a given drug. Detection of drugs of abuse
or their consequences aare important in helping patients
with alcohol or drug addiction.
Therefore, we are also interested in measuring markers
of alcohol abuse such as carbohydrate deficient transferrin
(CDT) or ethylglucuronide. Such measurements can give
an indication of the extent and duration of substance
abuse.
Our specialty - where we make major R&D efforts,
is capillary electrophoresis. This technique permits
detection of drugs, their metabolites, exogenous substances
or endogeneous substances of interest at very low
concentrations in small samples of bodily fluids such
as blood, urine, saliva etc. In our analyses we use
a few nanoliters (that would a millionth of a drop).
The probe is injected into a capillary whose inner
diameter corresponds to a human hair. An electrical
field separates the different substances in the probe
and the resulting peaks are analyzed optically Feldes
in einzelne Stoffe zerlegt. Arzneimittel und andere
Stoffe werden nach erfolgter Trennung or even by mass-spectroscopy.
This approach - besides its elegance - has many practical
advantages over older methods:
- Very small samples can be analyed (not a drop
- think about the children - no more needles - just
a little spit
- The capillaries are cheap
- Much less or no use of volatile organic compounds
- the environment greets thankfully
pdf
about measurement of an important antiviral drug,
ribavirin
pdf about
measuring CDT
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