Top 10 Forensic Compounds/Topics of 2016 – Cannabis Analysis

Organ-on-chip platforms aim to improve preclinical models for organ-level responses to novel drug compounds. Heart-on-a-chip assays in particular require tissue engineering techniques that rely on labor-intensive photolithographic fabrication or resolution-limited 3D printing of micro-patterned substrates, which limits turnover and flexibility of prototyping. In a recent paper authored by Janna C. Nawroth et al., published in Biofabrication ( Biofabrication ((2018) 10 025004), UCT’s silane chemicals were used for soft lithography fabrication of stamps for micro-molding hydrogels. The authors developed a rapid and automated method for large scale on-demand micro-patterning of gelatin hydrogels for organ-on-chip applications using a novel biocompatible laser-etching approach.

In a new paper by Lori Smith et al, published in the Journal of Food and Agricultural Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.7b02280), a wide and diverse range of anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) were analyzed in rodent liver samples using UCT’s dispersive SPE (d-SPE) tubes for sample clean-up. ARs are used to control rodent populations, acting as vitamin K antagonists by inhibiting vitamin K epoxide reductase. Consequently, formation of prothrombin and related blood-clotting factors (VII, IX and X) are blocked, causing massive hemorrhage and mortality. 

UCT would like to extend our congratulations to Greg Mercer from the USFDA Regional Pacific Laboratory for winning the 2016 NACRW  “UCT Excellence in Sample Preparation Award.” The awarded poster presentation was entitled “A Simple and Effective Cleanup Procedure to Produce Quechers Extracts That Are More Compatible with Gas Chromatography” featuring UCT’s Chlorofiltr® dSPE sorbent. This polymeric-based material selectively removes interfering chlorophyll from sample extracts without compromising the recovery of planer pesticides. Try a sample today!

UCT in recognized around the world not only for manufacturing the finest solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbents, but also providing scientific support for clinical and forensic toxicology accounts worldwide. UCT’s FASt (Filter & Shoot) sorbent has recently been utilized in the analysis of the novel pharmaceutical tianeptine in forensic toxicological urine samples by S.K Dempsey et al., in Journal of Analytical Toxicology (doi: 10.1093/jat/bkx034) .

In a recent publication titled A microchip for quantitative analysis of CNS axon growth under localized biomolecular treatments, Journal of Neuroscience Methods,221, (2014) 166-174, (doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.09.018) tridecafluoro-1, 1, 2, 2- tetrahydrooctytrichlorosilane (T2492) from UCT Specialties, LLC was used to vapor coat cast molded poly(methylmethacrylate) and PDMS parts.