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                            Funding & Awards
 Increasing Safety, Speed, Sensitivity, and Selectivity of Controlled Substance Analysis
Award Information
Awardee
              STATE POLICE, MARYLAND
Award #
              2018-DU-BX-0165
Funding Category
              Competitive Discretionary
Location
                    PIKESVILLE, MD
Congressional District
              3
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2018
Total funding (to date)
              $299,234
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY18 Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2018, $299,234)
With the influx of synthetic opioids and other novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) into forensic casework over the last several years, laboratories are being required to complete a higher volume of increasingly complex cases containing increasingly toxic chemicals.  These issues have translated to growing burdens on laboratories that are facing mounting backlogs.  The goal of this project is to re-envision the current analytical caseflow of drug evidence and evaluate if a re-envisioned workflow can lead to increased safety, speed, sensitivity, and selectivity of the examination. The re-envisioned workflow will replace screening samples using colorimetric tests and GC-FID analyses with screening via thermal desorption direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (TD-DART-MS), a safer and more reproducible version of DART-MS, followed by a targeted gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis.  By providing analysts with a more information-rich screening tool, a targeted method for confirmation will allow for a more rapid analysis with a higher sensitivity. Because different substances require different workups (i.e. liquids vs. powders), this proposal will initially focus on powders, which represent the most commonly encountered substance in casework.
Comparison of the current and re-envisioned workflows will be completed through blind evaluations of samples designed and/or collected to test common and challenging cases that have been observed in the laboratory. Metrics for comparison of the workflows include time for analysis (analyst time and instrument time), sensitivities, safety, false positive and false negative rates, and overall performance of the workflows.
Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law, and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR  200.210(a)(14).
CA/NCF



  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      Meeting the Evolving Challenges of Fentanyl and Other Emerging Drugs of Abuse: Innovative Strategies for Improving Analysis
                  A template for the validation of DART-MS for qualitative seized drugs analysis
                  Comparing two seized drug workflows for the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones, and opioids
                  Evaluation of an internal standard for qualitative DART-MS analysis of seized drugs
                  Increasing Safety, Speed, Sensitivity, and Selectivity of Controlled Substance Analysis
                  Development and evaluation of a synthetic opioid targeted gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method
                  A framework for the development of targeted gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods: Synthetic cannabinoids
                  Development and evaluation of a synthetic cathinone targeted gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method

  
Date Created: September 5, 2018
    
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                  New Age Therapeutics: Development and Validation of an Analytical Workflow for the Analysis of Psychedelics in Biological Matrices
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