Laboratory Applies Analytical Chemistry to Solve Drug-Related
Crimes
MILFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2016--
At a ceremony at the University of Copenhagen, Waters Corporation
(NYSE:WAT) officially welcomed the University’s Forensic Chemistry
Laboratory within the Department of Forensic Medicine into the Waters
Centers of Innovation Program. The laboratory, headed by Professor
Kristian Linnet, provides essential drug analysis services to law
enforcement and medical examiners who are investigating suicides,
suspicious deaths caused by drug overdoses or poisonings, and
drug-related crimes. Test results obtained on samples collected at a
crime scene or from autopsies - blood, urine, tissue, saliva and hair –
are crucial in solving crimes or the causes of accidental or deliberate
death.
“We expect a fruitful collaboration on developing new forensic methods
based on mass spectrometry which is an exciting, rapidly developing
field,” said Niels Morling, Professor, MD, DMSc, Head of the Department
of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University
of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Dr. Petur Weihe Dalsgaard is a research scientist in the Forensic
Chemistry Laboratory. He and his fellow scientists are experts in the
development of new analytical methods based on mass spectrometry. In his
remarks complimenting the work of Dr. Dalsgaard and his colleagues, Eric
Fotheringham, Director - Waters Centers of Innovation Program said, “We
couldn’t be more pleased to have the University of Copenhagen and Dr.
Dalsgaard participate in our program. Due to popular television series
like Making a Murderer and CSI, forensic science is very
much in the public eye today. It’s a fascinating science and one that
skilled scientists like Petur and his team bring to crime scene
investigations every day.”
On a global scale, the social and economic costs of illegal drug use and
addiction are hard to come by. Estimates vary, but one thing is for
certain: despite hundreds of billions of euros and dollars spent
annually in lost productivity and for healthcare and drug enforcement
costs, the problem remains.
“The illegal drug trade imposes tremendous costs on society. Lives are
ruined and the financial cost to society is enormous. We see the effects
every day,” Dr. Dalsgaard said. “Our mission is to quickly provide law
enforcement with the best available expertise, along with accurate and
unassailable test results that answer some very tough questions.”
For his work Dr. Dalsgaard employs the Waters® ACQUITY®
UltraPerformance LC® combined with Xevo®
quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometers to measure as many as 3,000
individual compounds in a single analysis. These include individual drug
compounds from a number of categories including amphetamines,
benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, cocaine, methadone and opiates.
In a ceremony held on campus, Waters officially saluted the work of Dr.
Dalsgaard and the Section of Forensic Chemistry with a forensic science
symposium organized in part and sponsored by the Waters Centers of
Innovation Program.
About the University of Copenhagen
The University
of Copenhagen (UCPH) is the oldest university and research
institution in Denmark. It is also the largest institution of research
and education in Denmark with about 37,000 students and 7,000 employees.
The university is a member of the prestigious International
Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), along with University of
Cambridge, Yale University, The Australian National University and UC
Berkeley, amongst others. It is ranked 45th in the 2014 QS World
University Ranking and 13th in Europe.The university has had
eight alumni become Nobel Laureates and has produced one Turing Award
recipient.
About Waters Centers of Innovation Program
Established in 2010, Waters
Centers of Innovation Program recognizes accomplished scientists and
their institutions for research in the fields of the health sciences,
pharmaceuticals, chemical materials, food and environmental chemistry,
mass spectrometry and separations science. By partnering with leading
scientists and connecting them with experts in mass spectrometry and
separations science, Waters endeavors to bring about inspired thinking
that converts ideas into reality.
The participants in the Waters Centers of Innovation Program include: Professor
Ganesh Anand, National University of Singapore; Professor
Luiz Claudio Cameron, UniRio, Brazil; Professor
David Clemmer, Indiana University; Professor
Daniel Tsun-Yee Chiu, Chang Gung University; Dr.
Joseph Dalluge, University of Minnesota; Dr.
Petur Weihe Dalsgaard, University of Copenhagen; Professor
Marcos Eberlin, University of Campinas, Brazil; Professor
Chris Elliott, Queen’s University Belfast; Professor
John Engen, Northeastern University; Prof.
Rob Fitzgerald, University of California – San Diego; Professor
Albert J. Fornace, Jr., Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer
Center; Professor
David Goodlett and Dr.
Maureen Kane, University of Maryland; Professor
De-an Guo, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica; Dr.
Frank Gonzalez, National Cancer Institute; Prof. Ron Heeren, Maastricht
University; Prof. Sunghwan Kim, Kyungpook
National University, Seoul, Korea; Dr.
Carlo R. Largiadèr, Dr. Jean-Francois DuFour and Dr. Martin Fiedler,
Inselspital University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland; Professor
Julie Leary, University of California – Davis; Professor
Amit Kumar Mandal, St. John’s Research Institute, Bangalore, India; Professor
John McLean, Vanderbilt University; Professor
Arthur Moseley, Duke University; Professor
Jeremy Nicholson, Imperial College London; Dr.
Devin Peterson, University of Minnesota; Associate
Professor
Jessica Prenni, Colorado State University; Dr.
Serge Rezzi, Nestle Institute of Health Sciences; Dr.
Ryan Rodgers, Future Fuels Institute, Florida State University; Professor
Pauline Rudd, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and
Training; Professor
James Scrivens, University of Warwick; Professor
Vladimir Shulaev, University of North Texas; Dr.
Norman Smith, Kings College London; Professor
Sarah Trimpin, Wayne State University; Professor
Bert van Bavel, NIVA, Oslo, Norway; Caroline
West and Eric Lesselier, University of Orleans, Orleans, France; and Prof.
Vicki Wysocki, The Ohio State University.
About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) develops and manufactures advanced
analytical and material science technologies for laboratory dependent
organizations. For more than 50 years, the company has pioneered a
connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information
management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis systems.
Waters, ACQUITY, UltraPerformance LC and Xevo are trademarks of Waters
Corporation.
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Source: Waters Corporation
Waters Corporation
Brian J. Murphy, +1 508-482-2614
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