First Analytical Chemistry Laboratory
Once a drug has been administered, it gets absorbed into the circulation (bloodstream), distributed in the body and metabolised (broken down) before being eliminated indicating that the level of the medicine in blood will vary over time. Many factors can affect how this process happens, including age, gender, genetic constitution, pregnancy, infections, liver and kidney function etc. It may also be affected by the level of other medicines or supplements taken by you. Therefore, if you are on a medication that needs to be kept at a certain level, it can be difficult to achieve without performing Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM).
TDM is the practice of measuring drugs and/or metabolites in blood/ plasma at a specific time point to confirm that drug concentrations are neither subtherapeutic nor potentially toxic and to optimize individual dosage regimens which is vital for critical care admitted patients. It is particularly useful for drugs with low safety margin (eg: Antiepileptics, Anticancer drugs, Immunosuppressants etc) and those with significant pharmacokinetic variability. The additional uses include checking patient compliance with a random blood sample, finding the reason behind therapeutic failure like in case of Antimicrobials and in Poisoning, blood sample taken at the earliest can confirm and repeated testing at regular intervals can help decide when to safely stop the supportive care. TDM can also be used to identify drug-drug or drug-food interactions.
A blood sample is taken initially which is then analysed using chromatography or immunoassays and then interpreted and correlated with the clinician’s judgement. Dose optimization could be further achieved with the help of pharmacokinetic models and dose optimization software. Unlike immunoassays, LC -MS/MS provides highly sensitive and specific measurements of drug concentrations in samples and allows for real-time testing of multiple drugs, enhancing efficiency and accuracy in dosage adjustments. The services provided by the newly developed Analytical Chemistry Lab and Precision Medicine Unit will be of immense help to your treating clinician.
Analytical Chemistry Laboratories are a sporadic occurrence. Currently, there are a couple of notable facilities in the country and none in the Central Travancore region. The new ACL in BCMCH is designed to advance research and education in chemical analysis and drug monitoring and hosts the world class Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometers, provided by Waters, a leading company in analytical science instrumentation. The facility was envisioned by our Director, Dr. George Chandy Matteethra, Assistant Directors, Dr. Jacob Jesurun & Dr. Grace Mary John, and is being successfully implemented under the able leadership of Dr. Sumith K Mathew who is a renowned expert and pioneer in Precision Medicine, TDM & Pharmacometrics. He is currently the Deputy Chair of Regional Asia Pacific Section of International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology. Being a highly sought after scientist, he brings varied experience from his previous stint at CMC, Vellore to join the Department of Pharmacology at BCMCH. The Services offered include TDM, Model Informed Precision Dosing, Enzyme Phenotyping, Quantification of Steroids, Screening for inborn errors of metabolism etc. We also aim to equip students and professionals with hands-on experience in analytical practices and encourage collaboration among various scientific disciplines to tackle complex analytical challenges. We invite academic institutions, industry partners, and government agencies to collaborate on research projects, internships, and training programs.
Together, let us bridge the gap between academia and industry, fostering innovation and practical applications of analytical chemistry!
