Synthetic drugs, also known as designer drugs or new psychoactive substances (NPS), are difficult to detect in overdose cases because of their low concentrations and evolving chemical structures. We are developing methods to make synthetic drug screening faster and more comprehensive. Our projects involve developing novel technologies to achieve this goal, as well as collecting blood samples from suspected overdose emergency room admissions from a local hospital and screening them for possible synthetic drugs. This data is then compiled and compared to de-identified clinical and demographic data collected at the hospital.
Drug Screening
