Oregon Health & Science University researchers will more quickly move benchtop discoveries toward drug discoveries with the help of a new, service-oriented laboratory focused on bioanalysis and pharmacokinetics.
The Bioanalytical Shared Resource, or BSR, located in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, OHSU School of Medicine, will analyze drugs, drug metabolites and other molecules, such as simple peptides, oligonucleotides, lipids and steroids. It also provides open access to a laboratory where users prepare and analyze their own samples by high-pressure liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
The BSR is supported by the Oregon Opportunity, a $500 million biomedical research funding initiative, which paid for the purchase of two mass spectrometers and two high-pressure liquid chromatography instruments. The lab's first spectrometer was purchased through a joint venture between the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, OHSU's General Clinical Research Center, the OHSU Office of the Vice President for Research, the OHSU Cancer Institute, the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmacy Practice, and individual investigators.
Dennis Koop, Ph.D., OHSU professor of physiology and pharmacology, was appointed the BSR's director earlier this year. Two full-time staff members - Andrea DeBarber, Ph.D., research assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology, and the BSR's assistant facilities director, and Dan Menasco, senior research assistant - also were hired with support from the department and the Oregon Cancer Institute.
"We have all the equipment. It is all up and running now," Koop said with a smile.
A main component of the BSR is the Pharmacokinetics Core, or PKCore, that functions as a service laboratory to offer the complete analysis of samples, including the development of analytical methods, sample preparation, and data analysis for clinical trials and basic science investigations. An important role for the PKCore is to provide support for the OHSU Cancer Institute.
"In the past, we couldn't do mass spectral analysis of this kind at OHSU," Koop said. "It was very expensive and time consuming to send samples to other facilities."
David Dawson, Ph.D., OHSU professor and chairman of physiology and pharmacology, said the BSR/PKCore will augment the department's organic chemistry initiative that will be the centerpiece of a new Program in Chemical Biology set to occupy space in the Biomedical Research Building, which will be completed in fall 2005.