An Institutional Development Grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center allowed Campbell University to purchase and install this high-resolution mass spectrometer to support drug research.
BUIES CREEK — Campbell University’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences received a $195,960 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to purchase and install a high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS) that will enhance the ability of faculty members and students to perform innovative research related to the pharmaceutical sciences.
“We are so grateful the N.C. Biotechnology Center recognizes our institutional research efforts and awarded us the Institutional Development Grant to acquire this high-end instrument,” said Qinfeng “Sarah” Liu, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Campbell.
Already installed and located in the Pharmaceutical Education & Research Center (PERC), the state-of-the-art technology enables Campbell faculty and students to characterize both small molecules and large proteins faster and with higher confidence than a low resolution mass spectrometer. It further allows them to analyze drugs, metabolites, proteins, lipids and carbohydrates in complex samples to address clinically-relevant questions that otherwise cannot be answered, Liu said.
“The addition of the HRMS to the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences will highly facilitate our multidisciplinary research collaboration with basic scientists, clinicians and biotech healthcare professionals from other departments and industries,” she added.
Seven faculty members in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and five faculty members in four other departments at Campbell will use the instrument as soon as it passes the final test in late September or early October for screening, identification, and quantitation studies essential for research in drug formulation, drug development, natural product development, chemical stress causing diseases and other areas.